Chapter 86: Life-and-Death Crisis
The area around Clear Wind Town was filled with great mountains, ancient trees reaching to the heavens, and dense primeval forests. Strange beasts roamed the deep mountains, and ordinary people dared not venture far.
Ye Fan had only lived in Clear Wind Town for a short time before he learned that these endless mountain ranges were the outer region of the Ancient Forbidden Land.
The State of Yan stretched two thousand li from north to south and three thousand li from east to west. The Ancient Forbidden Land was located in the center of the country, surrounded and enclosed by endless mountains. This primeval region spanned a full eight hundred li in circumference.
Six Cave Heaven Blessed Lands—Spirit Ruins Cave Heaven, Misty Cloud Cave Heaven, Jade Cauldron Cave Heaven, and others—were all arranged around the outside of this primeval region.
At this moment, Ye Fan plunged headlong into the deep mountains, running ceaselessly through the dense forest, wishing he could charge straight into the Ancient Forbidden Land. He felt his life was threatened and wanted to put as much distance as possible between himself and the town behind him.
"I hope my premonition is wrong..." After running for over an hour, crossing who knew how many great mountains, he finally stopped to catch his breath in a stretch of mountainous terrain.
Suddenly, he heard the roar of a savage beast. The sound was deafening, like thunderclaps splitting the sky, rolling and surging toward him.
"It's from the direction of Clear Wind Town..." Like a spirit monkey, Ye Fan swiftly climbed a cliff, pushed aside the vines, and slipped into a hidden stone cave. He held his breath, suppressing his life force to the absolute minimum. His body turned ice-cold, devoid of any vitality.
Before long, through the vines, he saw a strange beast covered in cyan scales streak across the sky, carrying a rider from the Jiang Family.
"They really came after me..." Ye Fan's pupils contracted. His heart turned icy. He had witnessed firsthand how terrifying the Jiang Family's riders were. If he were discovered, he would surely die.
A moment later, the powerful rider turned his beast and circled back, hovering repeatedly over the distant mountains and this area.
"He's locked onto this region. Has he found me?" Ye Fan felt ice-cold all over, sensing death was very close.
At the same time, fury burned in his heart. The other party was clearly after the heavy treasure he carried. If discovered, he had no chance of survival. But he dared not show any agitation now. He didn't move a muscle, his life force dropping to freezing point, his whole body like a piece of dead wood hidden in the stone cave.
A full two hours passed before the cyan beast in the sky finally flew away, gradually disappearing into the horizon. But Ye Fan still didn't dare move. Only when darkness had completely fallen did he nimbly climb out of the stone cave and quickly dash toward another mountain range.
"Jiang Family..." Ye Fan gritted his teeth.
That night, Ye Fan didn't light a fire. He only picked some wild fruit to stave off hunger, then hid himself in a thick patch of brambles.
During the night, the roars of unknown beasts rose and fell one after another, making for an especially restless atmosphere. The stars and moon were dim, yin energy pervaded the air, and the trees swayed in the desolate mountains like vicious ghosts baring their claws.
Suddenly, the beasts' howls in this area ceased. The mountain forest fell silent all at once. Ye Fan's heart tightened. His life force nearly withered to nothing, and he didn't dare move.
At some point, a strange beast appeared in the sky, carrying a rider who circled overhead. Even the beasts below sensed the danger.
It wasn't until the latter half of the night that the rider finally vanished from this area. Ye Fan felt cold sweat drenching his body. This couldn't go on—sooner or later, he would be tracked down.
"A direct confrontation means certain death. How can I shake him off?" Ye Fan realized there was no other way. He could only keep fleeing for now.
Over the next two days, Ye Fan wove through the mountains, constantly dodging and hiding. Several times, he narrowly avoided being discovered, brushing past death again and again.
On the third day, he faced his greatest crisis. The other party seemed to sense he might be hiding in this area and struck ruthlessly. He summoned a spirit weapon, a blade of blue light that split several stone cliffs, pulverized large swaths of forest, and destroyed vast stretches of brambles, leaving the mountain terrain bare and barren.
Ye Fan was hiding in a nearby swamp, not daring to move. His whole body was wrapped in mud and rotting leaves. He held his breath, waiting for the rider to leave.
But the other party didn't spare the swamp either. The spirit weapon, like a bolt of blue lightning, slashed through the swamp, carving out huge ravines that split the marshland apart.
"Pfft"
Suddenly, the blue lightning-like spirit weapon sliced past just a meter away, cutting through the mud. Though it didn't strike his body, a wisp of blue light grazed his abdomen. Ye Fan felt a sharp pain but gritted his teeth and forced himself not to move. If not for his extraordinarily powerful physique, an ordinary cultivator would have been cut in half by that terrifying blue light!
Half an hour later, everything finally calmed down. Ye Fan clenched his teeth and struggled out of the mud. Blood gushed from his abdomen, staining the mud a vivid red.
"Jiang Yichen, sooner or later I'll kill you! Even the Primordial Aristocratic Clan won't be able to protect you!"
Ye Fan felt the world spinning. He had lost too much blood. His abdomen had nearly been completely sliced open. If not for the mud plugging the wound, and his long period of stillness, he would have bled to death long ago.
He quickly found a mountain spring to wash his wound, then stripped off his mud-soaked outer clothes and tore his relatively clean inner garments into strips to bind the wound. But the injury on his abdomen was too severe—his intestines were almost visible—and the blood wouldn't stop.
Weak from blood loss, Ye Fan felt powerless. His hands were stained with blood. He tore up all his clean clothes and pressed them against the terrible wound. Still, the blood wouldn't stop. His lower body was dyed red, and his skin looked pale.
Ye Fan pressed his hands against the wound, blood seeping through his fingers. He bit his lips, struggling to stay conscious and not pass out. Silently, he circulated the Dao Scripture, mobilizing the life force throughout his body, trying to stabilize his injuries.
"The Way of Heaven takes from the abundant to supplement the deficient..."
Just as he was about to lose consciousness, a voice suddenly echoed from the deepest part of his heart-sea. Hundreds of ancient characters flowed like a gentle stream through his heart, gradually reviving his dazed mind and bringing him back to clarity.
Ye Fan gradually calmed down. His consciousness revived, no longer clouded. At the same time, the Dao Scripture circulated silently, and life essence continuously surged toward the wound. Finally, wisps of blue light burst from the gaping wound. The deadly killing intent that had penetrated his body was forced out. Life essence flowed, and the blood finally stopped.
Ye Fan was terribly weak, but he gritted his teeth and stood up, staggering as he moved his body into the mountain forest. He had to find a hidden place to take cover. His injuries were too severe; he could no longer run.
Originally, Ye Fan had planned to escape into the Ancient Forbidden Land within these few days. Only there would the rider be wary and dare not pursue him deeply. But he had no strength left. After thinking carefully for a moment, he stumbled and staggered back along the path he had come.
Finally, he stopped in a stretch of rubble-strewn forest that the rider had heavily ravaged, hiding himself between stone peaks.
This area had already been searched. Ye Fan guessed at the rider's mindset, believing this place would be a blind spot for a short time.
Ye Fan neither ate nor drank, hiding in this stone crevice for two full days and nights before his injuries were fully under control. But he still couldn't engage in strenuous activity.
During those two days, the rider constantly circled above the deep mountains, destroying many forests completely.
That night, Ye Fan crawled out of the stone crevice, picked some wild fruit, and moved to a new hiding spot. This new area had just been ravaged by the rider—trees snapped, rocks shattered, everything in chaos.
"I'll slowly follow behind you. Wherever you've searched, that's where I'll hide." In such a dangerous situation, with his life hanging by a thread at any moment, Ye Fan could only think carefully, dodge cautiously, and choose the rider's blind spots to take cover.
A full five or six days passed like this before he gradually recovered. It was a kind of torment. Over those days, due to lack of food and the pain of his illness, he had lost a whole circle of weight.
"If not for my physique far surpassing that of ordinary cultivators, that blue light would have already extinguished my life force." Ye Fan looked at the horizon and muttered to himself, "I have to survive this ordeal. I can't die here."
"Jiang Family..." Ye Fan gritted his teeth.
His strength was insufficient now. Perhaps his only option was to risk hiding in the Ancient Forbidden Land to shake off the rider. Once his body had mostly recovered, Ye Fan began to take a detour, trying to approach the Ancient Forbidden Land.
"I've consumed a sacred fruit. Maybe I can resist the curse there. Entering a Forbidden Zone of Life might actually be an opportunity for me!"