# Chapter 1696: Immortal Bell
Ye Fan was exhausted. Having passed through three layers of quasi-emperor tribulations, traces of blood dotted his body. Even someone as powerful as him could not pass through such tribulations easily. Who had ever seen such tribulations? Quasi-emperor tribulations were difficult to surmount, yet he had consecutively crossed three levels.
Dong!
A bell sounded, its tone clear and piercing, shaking one's soul. A large bell appeared.
The heavenly tribulation was originally about to dissipate. Ye Fan had pierced through the illusory projection of the Immortal Domain, slaying the Azure Dragon, Vermilion Bird, and others. He never expected such an object to appear, quite abruptly.
The lightning was already sparse, and this large bell was also very blurry, with streaks of electric light interweaving to outline its shape.
It was not the Primordial Bell he had seen before, but a mysterious bell body he had never encountered. Countless runes covered the bell wall, each ancient symbol possessing a strange power.
It shook one's heart!
The moment Ye Fan saw it, he felt his blood vessels surge, resonating with it in an inexplicable resonance, a very strange sensation.
Then, it vibrated gently, nearly shaking Ye Fan's soul out of his body. Tough as he was, he had to use all his strength to resist, mobilizing every power.
"So terrifying!"
For Ye Fan to utter these three words was truly rare. He had encountered imperial weapons clashing before, but now he felt this bell was even more mysterious.
In an instant, he thought of one object—born from a sacred mountain, once personally attacked by Emperor Venerable who wanted to seize it—the Immortal Bell possessed by the Kunlun descendants.
It must be that!
Truly unexpected. Had that Immortal Bell "reflected" itself here? Formed from laws, interwoven with lightning, not much different from the real object, it could also transmit a clear, crisp sound.
Weng! It transformed into a streak of flowing light, flying over, then pressed down. The bell mouth enlarged, enveloping the person and cauldron below, covering everything.
Ye Fan resisted. This was an immense pressure. The blood inside his body, increasingly tending toward bright red, began to boil. His bones creaked and cracked.
The Immortal Bell scattered beams of light. Ye Fan offered up his cauldron to bear it. Although it might easily injure himself, he risked it to temper the Mother Qi Cauldron.
The bell sounded leisurely, laws sweeping down. This was not a blade-like or sword-like attack, but a suppression of tremendous force. It was as if the entire starry sky was pressing down, trying to grind Ye Fan into meat paste.
If not for the Sacred Body, if not for supreme hardness, it would be impossible to bear. It was too powerful. Ye Fan's flesh split open, blood streaks appearing.
Perhaps it could also be said that it was precisely because his physical body was so strong that the Immortal Bell appeared, corresponding to his deserved heavenly tribulation, adding pressure.
The only fortunate thing was that the Immortal Bell did not fight to the death. It hung there, not advancing further.
No one knew how long passed. Ye Fan used all kinds of secret techniques, resisting the falling immortal light. He even deployed the Sacred Body's divine phenomenon, propping up the entire sky, before finally lifting the Immortal Bell.
There, light blazed brilliantly. A large bell tolled leisurely, cutting through the ancient tranquility of ten thousand ages.
And at this moment, Ye Fan finally sensed something. A certain power within him was about to surge, resonating with the Immortal Bell. A section of dharma formula surfaced in his mind.
He was immediately shaken. A monstrous wave surged in his heart. Was it related to this dharma formula? Was it because of it that the Immortal Bell had been interwoven into existence?
Ye Fan was deeply shocked. The fog of many years seemed to have blown away quite a bit. His heart trembled. He thought of many things. Once this matter was settled, he must go seek the truth!
The scripture sounded on its own, then returned to calm. The Immortal Bell also disappeared. The sea of lightning in heaven and earth gradually dispersed, about to restore the starlight filling the sky.
However, with a Hong sound, it was like a raging sea rushing over, ten thousand layers of terrifying waves. This was a vast fire, burning the universe to ashes. Distant stars were swallowed by the flames, directly melting.
This was karmic fire, roasting Ye Fan, refining his physique. It came inexplicably, very suddenly.
The mundane world of red dust, all sentient beings have sins. Fire burns their bodies. Even the gods are not spared. Ancient Buddhas cannot escape either. Once it attaches to the body, truly burning to the soul, everything dissolves.
This karmic fire was somewhat different from the karmic fire of the world. This was the essence flame of ten thousand paths of karmic fire, the most terrifying. The great sins of all heavens and ten thousand paths turned to fire, converging together, calcining Ye Fan's physical body.
Ye Fan did not flee. He let the cauldron cross with him, bathing in the firelight. This was a process that quasi-emperors must necessarily undergo. Most people experienced it when they became quasi-emperors, while a few would have it arrive later. When Ye Fan became a quasi-emperor, he had crossed two tribulations, naturally also belonging to the special cases.
Back then, when Shakyamuni achieved the quasi-emperor body, tempering his physique, he had burned through his bones, leaving behind a piece of Buddha's parietal bone, which fell into Huahua's hands.
Ye Fan sat down cross-legged, actively drawing the karmic fire onto his body, tempering it into his soul. This was not something ordinary people dared to do, but he was taking the risk.
Because he wanted to become the strongest, demanding everything according to inconceivable standards, to prepare for that future great battle. He would not allow regrets to happen.
Although the future was full of uncertainty, what he saw was only a corner of the future, full of variables, not necessarily certain to come true, as long as there was a possibility, he would strangle it in its infancy.
Strengthening his strength was an inevitable choice!
Karmic fire refined the golden body. Ye Fan's whole body glowed. The blood inside him surged. Every bone vibrated, trembling incessantly.
This was a tempering, even more a rare transformation. It was not the karmic fire seen by the world, but the essence flame of ten thousand paths within the karmic fire, tempering his physique, burning continuously.
This was naturally a great ordeal, because one could clearly see Ye Fan's flesh and blood splitting open, nearly burning up. Every bone collided, even shattered.
His physical body was reorganizing, like a snake shedding old skin. Piece after piece of small broken bones were squeezed out. Flesh and blood continuously fell off, dripping with blood.
This scene was terrifying. How could transformation be like this? It should proceed step by step, changing from the subtle. To be so drastic—breaking bones and replacing them, cutting away flesh and blood—was truly somewhat horrifying.
But the karmic fire triggered by a quasi-emperor was exactly like this. This kind of transformation had no gradual progression. It was very fierce, very violent.
Outside Ye Fan's body, the great fire burned fiercely, swallowing him. This place became increasingly mysterious and unfathomable, as if an invisible great axe was chopping and cutting, remodeling his body.
No one knew how long passed. The karmic fire receded. The cauldron hung above Ye Fan's head. He opened his eyes, sharp as lightning, and stood up tall.
At his feet were many pieces of broken bone—the waste bones squeezed out after casting off the old and creating the new. It was somewhat terrifying.
Ye Fan grabbed them in his hand, then crushed them into ashes, gently scattering them, saying: "Here is buried a period of my years. You shall accompany this place."
The three layers of heavenly tribulation ended. He had perfectly advanced. Both his physical body and divine sense were extremely terrifying, reaching a shocking level.
From today onward, looking across the universe, he could be counted among the strongest. He had surpassed his former opponents. Many people in this life would find it difficult to contend with him again. Perhaps only time could make up the gap, allowing them to possibly catch up.
Ye Fan drank like a whale, devouring like an ox, absorbing the essence of the eight desolations of the universe, replenishing his empty body after crossing the tribulation. Surprisingly, the golden Sea of Suffering below was unharmed. Such a vast heavenly tribulation had not destroyed it.
He absorbed the essence of the ten directions, drawing the resonance of heaven and earth's ten thousand paths. Ye Fan sensed a familiar fluctuation in the deepest part of the golden sea. He flew into it, and rays of multicolored light continuously rushed toward him, causing his body to shake violently, then he let out a long sigh.
He finally understood where this was—the Sacred Body Ancestral Star!
But it had been destroyed. The tomb seal of the Sacred Body Ancient Ancestor buried on this star had broken open. There was no body, no skeleton, only the golden forbidden sea rushing out, flooding this place.
"Was this the anger of the Sacred Body lineage's progenitor?"
Ye Fan sighed. The people of that era were too powerful. The Sea of Suffering in the tomb was actually this vast, destroying the tomb, flooding the starry sky!
This residual dharma, this trace, could be like this. Truly an extreme manifestation of a single drop of blood filling the starry sea.
"No wonder it could be like this, influencing me together with the Stride Secret and the All Secret. One lineage passed down, the call of blood."
This place was not of much use to Ye Fan anymore. Only some undispersed essence energy entered his body, and some dao principles for him to contemplate. But for him, now a six-layer quasi-emperor, they were no longer necessary.
"It would still be of great use to Yang Xi. Perhaps he could have a great opportunity here."
Ye Fan searched the golden forbidden sea thoroughly, feeling that something should remain. But after searching for several days, he still found nothing. He had no time to delay, because there was an important matter to attend to.
He was going to seek the Immortal Bell, to add a trump card that no one could ignore for the future great battle!
Although the hope of obtaining it was somewhat slim, he had to try, only because the scripture within him could resonate with that bell.
Ye Fan departed. His seclusion was temporarily over. He flew all the way, transforming into a terrifying light of time, cutting through the dark universe, incredibly powerful.
On his way forward, he tested his methods. His body had been comprehensively enhanced. His combat power had increased by a large margin, absolutely terrifying and overwhelming, with few opponents in the world!
Moreover, Ye Fan was surprised to find that he almost instantly stood in the Divine Seal domain. Subsequent repeated attempts revealed that the trigger rate was extremely high.
There was a period when he was delighted to trigger it once every half year. Later, it became once a month. By the Great Sage realm, it shortened to a few days. Now it had burst forth to this level—he could trigger it successfully multiple times within a single day.
In that instant, Ye Fan's confidence suddenly swelled. His heroic spirit soared to the heavens. In this world, he should be considered a top expert!
Unless the Supremes emerged, he, about to achieve great accomplishment, could match all directions. Although he might not be able to suppress a few peerless experts, he would no longer be as passive as before.
Ye Fan flew all the way, his figure blurry. The Stride Art was unmatched in the world. His body affected the flow of time. A single leap seemed like a thousand ages.
Along the way, Ye Fan carved characters in the void. One rune after another shone, then gathered together, transforming into a golden divine sparrow, flying toward the Heavenly Court.
This was the method of a six-layer quasi-emperor. Even separated by endless starry skies, crossing many galaxies, he could transmit messages through divine arts. This was the letter he left for Yang Xi, telling him to go seek the Sacred Body Ancestral Star.
As for himself, he directly rushed toward an ancient path, tracing back in reverse. That was the starting path of the Nine Dragons Coffin. He had walked out from this stretch of starry sky.
Moments later, Ye Fan landed on the Ancient Yinghuo Star. Such was his current might—crossing endless starry skies in a single thought, arriving at his destination.
For the battle a few years later, to survive, to protect his loved ones and friends, to prevent the song of sorrow from sounding, he would do everything possible to strengthen his power, increase the Heavenly Court's foundation, and come here to seek the Immortal Bell.