Chapter 188: Nine Dragons Guarding a Single Pearl
Ye Fan and Er Lengzi returned to the Stone Stockade. In the days that followed, he earnestly learned the methods of source-seeking from the elders in the village.
At the same time, he was actively preparing. To enter Purple Mountain, he had to understand everything about it.
"You've asked so much—could it be that you still want to enter Purple Mountain?" These past few days, Ye Fan kept inquiring about Purple Mountain matters. Zhang Wu Ye frowned and said, "Really, don't take risks, or you'll only lose your life."
"Don't you want to retrieve the Source Heaven Scroll?" Ye Fan smiled.
"The things left by our ancestors, I naturally don't want their inheritance to be severed, but what can be done? A thousand years ago, that ancestor didn't listen to the ancestral warnings..."
"Use it to break into Purple Mountain? Once gone, never to return, hard to recover." According to Zhang Wu Ye, the Source Heaven Scroll was a spiritual object that could be used as a weapon.
"If you tell me the old stories from back then, maybe I can retrieve the Source Heaven Scroll." Zhang Wu Ye shook his head and said, "You have shown great kindness to our Stone Stockade. I don't want you to go to your death."
"I have means to protect myself. You can rest assured."
No matter how he persuaded, Zhang Wu Ye opposed him taking the risk.
Five days later, Ye Fan arrived at an ancient mine about a hundred li from the Stone Stockade. This was where Chen Da Hu Zi and his men had found the ancient jade. That jade fragment was related to Purple Mountain, so he naturally had to investigate.
This place was desolate, with no human presence. The ancient mine was eerie and ghostly, abandoned for who knows how many ages, emitting a musty smell from within.
It was a massive mine shaft, like a natural sinkhole. Underground, it was pitch black and bottomless. Standing there alone made one's hair stand on end. "Could there be something sinister here?"
The mine shaft was extremely quiet, without a sound. Ye Fan descended a full thousand meters before reaching the bottom. He couldn't help but be astonished—this was a huge ore vein, truly rare. In ancient times, it must have yielded vast amounts of Source. Unfortunately, everything had been sealed away since the Primordial Era, and no rare precious Source would remain.
"Crack"
A sound came from under his feet as he stepped on a dry bone. This should be someone who died in the last hundred years, not an ancient relic.
The huge ancient mine was covered with marks of axes and knives, all left by predecessors, recording the blood and tears of the source miners of old.
"Who left the ancient jade here? Their identity must be extraordinary—it couldn't have appeared here for no reason." Ye Fan quickly arrived at the spot where the ancient jade was found, but there was nothing special about it. He searched there for an hour, then continued forward, wanting to explore the deepest part of the mine.
After traveling five thousand meters underground, he still hadn't reached the end. This great mine seemed to lead to the underworld, dark and silent.
After another three thousand meters, Ye Fan couldn't help but draw in a cold breath. An eight-thousand-meter-long ancient mine still hadn't reached its end—what did that mean?
Ordinary mine shafts were only a few hundred meters long. This one was monstrously huge. He felt it couldn't be a single Source vein; rather, many shafts must have been dug through and connected.
But why was there only one entrance?
"If this is a huge Source vein, it might be a legendary dragon vein..." Ye Fan was shocked inside. That is to say, this place might have once nurtured some Divine Source.
Clearly, many people had come here after the Primordial Era, leaving many traces.
After advancing a full hundred thousand meters, Ye Fan finally reached the end. He heard the sound of rushing water.
There was no further path, only a vertical deep hole, from which the water sound came.
Ye Fan looked down and felt the underground river was bitterly cold, like a dull knife scraping flesh, making his skin ache.
"Something's strange."
He thought for a moment, then plunged in with a splash, moving forward through the underground river.
The river water was bone-chilling. Even with divine power protecting his body, he still felt the cold. After traveling about a dozen li, the marks of mining tools on the riverbank gradually disappeared.
Ye Fan gritted his teeth and continued. He noticed an unusual phenomenon: the underground river's direction remained unchanged, straight ahead. Even after another twenty li, it was still the same. Finally, following the underground river, he traveled a full forty or fifty li before stopping.
Because, at that moment, he sensed immense danger. Ahead appeared a huge funnel-like black hole, into which all the underground river flowed, as if it could never be filled.
For some reason, upon reaching this point, Ye Fan shuddered violently. The massive funnel-like black hole ahead seemed capable of devouring his mind, giving him a spine-chilling feeling.
"This is no good place. I came to investigate the ancient jade. I want to enter Purple Mountain—there's no need to take risks here."
Ye Fan didn't want to rashly delve into the huge black hole leading underground. He turned back along the underground river, only breathing a sigh of relief when he reappeared in the ancient mine.
"Eh!" At that moment, Ye Fan was startled. Something occurred to him, and he muttered to himself, "Could it be...!!:l..r..."
He quickly rushed out of the ten-thousand-meter-long, thousand-meter-deep ancient mine, reached the surface, determined the direction of the underground river, and ran across the ground.
After charging out several dozen li, reaching the corresponding end of the underground river, Ye Fan was greatly shocked.
Right ahead, a desolate mountain range lay across the blood-red earth, blocking the way. It coiled like a horned dragon, winding and towering.
With Purple Mountain at the center, there were a total of nine mountain ranges in all directions. This was one of them.
"What a grand design!" Ye Fan exclaimed. An area of several dozen li, even nearly a hundred li, was all connected to that Purple Mountain.
Ye Fan had flown to high altitudes more than once to observe. One end of each of the nine mountain ranges pointed toward Purple Mountain in a very regular pattern.
He thought for a moment, then returned to the Stone Stockade. He carved Purple Mountain and the nine mountain ranges onto cowhide in proportion, handed it to Zhang Wu Ye, and asked for his advice: "Is there any significance to such a mountain and river layout?"
Although Zhang Wu Ye lived here, he was after all just a mortal. He couldn't stand at high altitudes like Ye Fan and take in everything at a glance.
When he saw this clear topographical map, he stood up in shock and said, "This is... you actually saw it."
"So you know all about this?"
"My ancestors saw the extraordinary nature of Purple Mountain precisely because of these nine mountain ranges." Zhang Wu Ye spread out the cowhide and said, "Look, what does this resemble?"
"I can't tell what it resembles. I just feel the arrangement is very symmetrical. One end of each of the nine mountain ranges points toward Purple Mountain at the center."
"This is nine dragon veins, guarding a single pearl!"
Ye Fan was speechless. Where did these nine mountain ranges look like dragons? That Purple Mountain stood upright, like a great iron sword, not at all like a pearl.
"You haven't studied the Source Heaven Scroll, so naturally you wouldn't think in that direction. This is indeed a dragon vein—nine dragons guarding a single pearl!"
"Is there any significance to this?" Ye Fan asked.
"The significance is immense. The Source Heaven Scroll has detailed records. I only know a little bit of the surface. Such a 'grand momentum' contains endless mysteries."
Ye Fan was moved and asked, "What is the explanation?"
"My ancestors once said: nine dragons guarding a single pearl exhausts the ultimate mysteries of heaven and earth's transformations!"
"What ultimate mysteries?" Ye Fan pressed.
"Don't mention mortals—even powerful cultivators cannot withstand such 'grand momentum.' My ancestors only said one thing: none but an ancient Great Emperor can move such 'grand momentum.'"
Ye Fan's heart itched with curiosity. He asked, "Did your ancestor, that Origin Heavenly Master, have a more detailed account?"
"No. But one thing is certain: my ancestor was frightened back precisely because he glimpsed the heavenly secret of Purple Mountain, and at the same time didn't dare let the fairies of Yao Chi help."
"This..." Ye Fan was shaken inside.
"Other ancestors of my Zhang family who studied the Source Heaven Scroll couldn't fully comprehend the book. They only speculated that this place hides a tremendous secret."
Ye Fan wanted to know the answer even more. "Couldn't they find even a single clue, not glimpse a trace of the heavenly secret?"
"Many ancestors agreed that all of this points to that ancient Great Emperor. He might have laid down some terrifying things here..."
"What did he use this 'grand momentum' to set up?" Ye Fan muttered to himself. "The Primordial Era that cultivators speak of is a hundred thousand years ago. A Great Emperor from over a hundred thousand years ago—what use would these arrangements be to him?" Ye Fan didn't understand. A Great Emperor long turned to dust—what meaning did these actions have?
"Perhaps it was prepared for later generations..." Zhang Wu Ye shook his head and said, "Only by fully comprehending the Source Heaven Scroll can one understand what that Great Emperor intended to do."
There were living creatures there, belonging to pre-Primordial races. Ye Fan muttered to himself, unable to understand the Great Emperor's motives.
"I saw an ancient mine earlier, pointing toward a mountain range. The underground was all hollowed out, like a Source dragon vein. Could it have produced Divine Source?" Ye Fan mentioned that abandoned ancient mine.
"In fact, the ancient mine leads directly to that mountain range. The underground beneath all nine mountain ranges has been hollowed out."
"This..." Ye Fan was greatly shocked. "What a colossal project!"
"The methods of an ancient Great Emperor are unimaginable. Naturally, they could accomplish all this."
"Was this also done by that Great Emperor, not by later miners?" Ye Fan asked.
Zhang Wu Ye said, "Some ancestors of my Zhang family speculated that each of the nine dragon veins contained peerless Divine Source, but they were all hollowed out and gathered into that dragon pearl."
"Why would that be?" Ye Fan was startled.
"Ancestors who studied the Source Heaven Scroll speculated that it was to drive the 'grand momentum' of this place, to gather the essence of the nine dragon veins and store it in the dragon pearl. Nine dragons guarding a single pearl truly highlights that pearl."
Everything was in the pearl. The layout set by the ancient Great Emperor all revolved around that Purple Mountain. The nine mountain ranges were merely the 'green leaves.'
"I truly want to know what that Great Emperor from over a hundred thousand years ago intended to do!"
Since ancient times, only a few Great Emperors had appeared in the Eastern Wasteland. They could refine Extreme Weapons, create the most profound ancient scriptures, and possessed heaven-defying methods. For a Great Emperor to go to such lengths and create such a grand design—what was his purpose?
Time passed quickly. In the blink of an eye, two months had gone by. Ye Fan had learned quite a bit of the 'surface' of the Source Heaven Scroll.
He had prepared for a long time, learned enough details, and even figured out exactly where that Zhang family ancestor from long ago had entered Purple Mountain. Now, he decided to act—to enter Purple Mountain and retrieve the Source Heaven Scroll.
Purple Mountain held endless secrets, while the Source Heaven Scroll possessed endless allure. As long as he could obtain and master this book, he could understand everything.
"I must become an Origin Heavenly Master. I have to take the gamble. Otherwise, the path of cultivation is nearing its end." Ye Fan decided to enter Purple Mountain immediately!