Shrouded Sky

After dinner, Ye Fan continued studying the Dao Scripture. The entire night, he remained immersed in a mysterious and profound state. Above the golden Bitter Sea, breath transformed into form from nothingness. Stars glittered, chaos shrouded the sky, and infinite changes occurred.

Not until the next day did he awaken from that state. He felt no fatigue at all. Life essence surged from the Bitter Sea, refreshing his mind and spirit.

"Big Brother, come have breakfast…" Little Tingting bounced over, her face beaming with joy. Though her clothes were ill-fitting and tattered, covered in patches, nothing could dim the radiant light of her childlike smile.

Ye Fan felt a wave of emotion. Children are truly innocent, despite the tragedy she endured yesterday, her sorrowful cries, today she had awakened without sadness, having forgotten all the pain.

"Are you happy, Tingting?" Ye Fan asked with a smile.

"Mhm!" Tingting nodded seriously. "Now that we have food, Grandpa doesn't have to save it all for me. Of course I'm happy!"

Ye Fan was stunned. So this was the happiness of some people, just having enough to eat brought Tingting such satisfaction. Compared to those who scheme for fame and fortune, her standard of happiness seemed unbelievably low. And yet, perhaps it was precisely this simple contentment that gave rise to such pure goodness and beauty.

Looking at her flushed cheeks and bright smile, Ye Fan felt deeply moved. He gently stroked her hair with affection and led her outside.

Near noon, that sallow-faced middle-aged man from the Li Clan returned. Seeing the small restaurant closed, he kicked the door violently and cursed loudly, shouting, "Open up, your grandpa's here to eat!"

Inside, Tingting was extremely nervous. Her wide eyes filled with fear as she clung tightly to the old man, terrified they would break in. Grandpa Jiang gently patted her back, softly comforting her.

Ye Fan stood inside, listening to the foul language. His brows gradually furrowed, and his eyes grew colder.

"Fine, old Jiang, you don't want to do business? Then starve to death! You're already in your seventies or eighties, what else can you even do?!"

Outside, the man continued cursing, smashing the flowerpots by the door and carving up the wooden panels with a knife, leaving it a mess before finally leaving.

"Grandpa…" After a long silence, Tingting asked timidly, "Will those bad people come again tomorrow?"

"Don't worry, Tingting. Grandpa won't let them hurt you," the old man assured her over and over.

Tingting whispered, "Those bad people do evil every day. Why doesn't anyone punish them?"

Ye Fan realized: children often speak the truest words. There are many injustices in the world, and not all are punished.

"Don't worry, Tingting. They won't come again tomorrow." Ye Fan crouched and smiled. "Let's go eat. I'll cook you a special dish for lunch."

"You can cook?" Her eyes were full of doubt.

"Don't look down on me. I'll show you something you've never had before."

Tingting blinked and shook her head. "I don't believe it. Grandpa can cook everything. Back when we still had a restaurant, he made delicious food every day."

"Sweet and sour ribs, ever had them?" Though it was a common dish from his homeland, Ye Fan believed it had never appeared here.

Sure enough, Tingting looked puzzled. "How can sugar go with ribs?" Even the old man was baffled.

In the end, Ye Fan could only describe the recipe. His cooking skills were atrocious. But once Grandpa Jiang understood the method, he made the dish himself. When the sweet and sour venison ribs were finally served, Tingting ate joyfully, her face radiant with smiles.

Ye Fan enjoyed this warm, happy atmosphere, it gave him a feeling of home and a sense of belonging.

After lunch, the old man asked Tingting to take a nap. Then he brewed some coarse tea, brought it to the clean Eight Immortals table, and asked Ye Fan, "Child, are you planning something? Don't act recklessly…"

Ye Fan smiled. "Don't worry, Uncle. Nothing will go wrong. Anyone can do evil, it's just a question of whether they choose to."

"What are you planning?"

"If I really wanted revenge, I have a hundred ways to make them suffer. But there's no need to be so elaborate. A simple method will do, I'll make sure they're too busy to cause more trouble. Later, when I have time, I'll deal with them properly."

That afternoon, Ye Fan left the town. He didn't intend to plot against the Li Clan with great care. As long as those cultivators weren't home, there was no need. He'd already learned the Li Clan made monthly trips to the nearby county to purchase supplies. They practically monopolized half the town's businesses. Tomorrow was their next procurement trip. The sallow-faced man was one of the Li Clan's stewards, usually in charge of this task.

The county was seventy or eighty miles away, much more prosperous than the small town, with tens of thousands of residents and streets packed with shops and vendors. For Ye Fan, whose body far exceeded a normal person's, that distance was trivial. In just an hour, he reached the county.

After trading some wild game from the mountains for money, he bought Tingting candies and snacks, as well as some clothes and shoes. Then he gathered supplies for his plan.

As dusk fell, he began his journey back. His main purpose was to survey the road between the town and county, looking for desolate or secluded spots.

He returned just after dark. Seeing him safe, the old man was visibly relieved. Tingting was overjoyed, holding her new clothes with glee. She offered the candies first to Ye Fan and Grandpa Jiang before finally eating some herself.

"Tingting, why don't you change into your new clothes?" Ye Fan asked.

"I want to save them for later. These are still wearable." She carefully packed them away.

Looking at her patched and re-stitched clothes, Ye Fan felt a pang in his heart. Such a small, sensible girl, already so considerate, it was hard not to be moved.

"Don't worry. From now on, you'll have new clothes every day. Go try them on." Ye Fan thought, If Tingting and Grandpa Jiang are bullied again, it would truly be unjust.

That night, Ye Fan continued studying the Dao Scripture. He noticed that when holding the bodhi seed, his mind became especially clear. His understanding deepened significantly.

"No wonder it's called the Enlightenment Tree…"

The next afternoon, Ye Fan left town, making his way through the forest to the road to the county. There, a stretch passed through a narrow gorge.

Climbing the cliff, he dressed in black, masked his face, and strapped on stilts to appear taller. He opened the oil barrels he'd prepared the day before and waited.

As darkness approached, the rumble of wheels echoed. More than ten wagons, packed with cloth, goods, and food, came into view.

Ye Fan rose and hurled the barrels down. With loud bangs, oil splashed across the wagons. Panic broke out.

"It's oil, someone's trying to burn the wagons!" people screamed. Some fled, while others tried to find the arsonist. Finally, someone spotted Ye Fan above.

He was tall and dressed in black, tossing torches one after another.

Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh,

Flames roared. The wagons became a sea of fire in seconds. There was no way to extinguish them.

"Who are you?! Daring to burn Li Clan's goods, aren't you afraid of being hunted down by cultivators?" the steward shouted. With the cargo destroyed, he imagined the terrible consequences.

Bang!

Another oil barrel nearly struck him. His clothes soaked in oil, and a torch followed. Screaming, he ran madly toward a mountain stream, engulfed in flames.

Ye Fan scanned the scene, then vanished into the darkness. He removed the stilts and black clothes, packed up the evidence, and disappeared into the night.

That night, all of Clear Wind Town was shaken. The Li Clan suffered a massive loss, ten-plus wagons of goods destroyed, nothing salvaged. Several men were burned.

The town remained restless all night. The Li Clan, furious, searched every house for clues. They didn't believe locals could pull this off, suspecting it was a distant enemy. They sent a messenger to the Red Mist Grotto-Heaven immediately.

That night, Ye Fan quietly left the small inn and entered the depths of the mountains. He had to boost his strength quickly. After traveling deep into the wilderness, he found a stone cave, sealed it with boulders, and took out his precious herbs.

The Jade Serpent Orchid gleamed like mutton-fat jade, exuding a fragrant aroma. The golden rhizome from the Ancient Wood Essence radiated with divine light.

Ye Fan held the bodhi seed and meditated. Once he felt the Bitter Sea quiver and a breakthrough coming, he swallowed the Jade Serpent Orchid.

Half an hour later, though the cave was sealed, the sound of crashing waves echoed within. Golden light surged outward, like a tidal wave, roaring like thunder.

This continued until the middle of the night. Ye Fan inspected his body, his golden Bitter Sea had more than doubled in size. Leaping out of the cave, he felt lighter and faster, his strength significantly enhanced.

He returned, resealed the cave, and swallowed the golden rhizome. Again, he meditated with the bodhi seed.

In the second half of the night, the cave erupted with deafening noise. The boulders at the entrance shattered, and light burst out like a volcanic eruption or heavenly river descending. The entire cave shone brilliantly, the Bitter Sea roaring with thunder and rising to the heavens.

It lasted an entire hour before calming. Ye Fan shot out of the cave, just as the mountain collapsed behind him.

By now, dawn was breaking. The forest was no longer fully dark. Ye Fan felt brimming with vitality, powerful life energy coursed through him.

His golden Bitter Sea had expanded from the size of a soybean to a pigeon's egg, growing several times larger. He was astonished, this was entirely due to the golden rhizome, which held ten times the life essence of the Jade Serpent Orchid. A priceless treasure.

Ye Fan's heart was unsettled. His body seemed like a bottomless pit, never overwhelmed by potent medicine. As long as he had enough life essence, he could keep expanding the Bitter Sea.

"Could it be the curse of the Primeval Desolate Sacred Physique hasn't appeared in me? Or maybe this is the curse, each step forward needs oceans worth of life essence. That would mean the path only gets narrower, harder to continue…"

For ordinary people, absorbing that much life energy would rupture their Bitter Sea and tear their bodies apart. "If someone absorbed it slowly over time, their Bitter Sea might become bigger than mine…" Ye Fan mused. His way of training was extravagantly wasteful.

"But is it really wasted? I don't think so."

Because he found that his Bitter Sea, though only the size of a pigeon egg, already contained nineteen godrunes, teeming with vibrant life force.

"Most people probably can't form godrunes at this size. But mine already has nineteen."

"Swoosh swoosh swoosh, "

Ye Fan flicked his fingers. Over a dozen godrunes shot out like dazzling sword beams, piercing nearby rocks with ease.

"With the same-sized Bitter Sea, my godpower will far exceed others'." Ye Fan's thoughts surged.

"But this body of mine… to achieve true mastery, I'll need a vast amount of life essence." At this realization, he frowned.

"Still, it's not only spirit herbs. If I can find the 'Power Source' that Elder Wu Qingfeng spoke of, and cultivate in places rich with spirit energy, I might break through."

According to ancient texts, in the era when Heaven and Earth's energies first created all things, the world was shrouded in chaos and rich spiritual energy. Many spiritual beings absorbed this primal essence and formed amber-like crystals full of life power.

These were known as Source Crystals, rare and priceless treasures for cultivators. Some top-grade Source Crystals were worth kingdoms.

In later ages, as the primordial essence thinned, it became hard for cultivators to form such "Sources."

However, during the last golden era, when life thrived and countless spirit plants grew, many rare divine sources were born. Some even contained preserved life forms within, sealed in amber-like crystal.

"To live in a time like that…" Ye Fan sighed longingly.