Chapter 227: Primordial Divine Guidance
The moonlight was like water, the earth silent and still, a scene of profound tranquility.
The red gravel beneath their feet, the large boulders hundreds of feet away, and the rocky mountains further in the distance were all covered by a thin, smoky layer of moonlight, hazy and indistinct.
Yet Ye Fan and Old Knife Handle and his three companions had no such peaceful thoughts. They were now perilously close to the Primordial Ancient Mine, standing on the blood-red sandy ground. Their hearts felt as if they might leap out of their throats.
The two cultivators named Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan were trembling uncontrollably, barely able to stand, their hearts filled with terror.
The Primordial Ancient Mine was one of the seven great Forbidden Zones of Life in the Eastern Wasteland, its fearsome reputation spreading across the land. Since ancient times, countless terrible events had occurred here.
"Who can save us? I really don't want to die!"
"How can we escape this place? Old Knife Handle, do you have a way? Daoist, can you find a path out?"
Their voices trembled, nearly despairing, their faces as pale as paper.
They were less than a hundred miles from the Primordial Ancient Mine. To have reached this range, their chances of survival were slim.
"Don't panic. We haven't entered the divine mine yet. We're still a few dozen miles away. There's still time to retreat quickly," Old Knife Handle said in a low voice.
"But isn't it said that encountering the Primordial Ancient Mine means certain death? We've almost seen it. Is there any hope of survival?"
The two men, clutching at straws, looked at Old Knife Handle with tense, hopeful eyes.
"That's because people got too close to the Primordial Ancient Mine. We're still far away. There's a chance to escape!" Old Knife Handle didn't want to say more. He turned and sprinted away. This place was absolutely not somewhere to linger; otherwise, they wouldn't live long.
Ye Fan also turned and ran, following Old Knife Handle. He felt he had been incredibly unlucky lately. He had only wanted to observe the Primordial Ancient Mine from a distance, not to be swept in by a black whirlwind.
Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan, their faces pale, chased after them. They had lost all composure and direction, passively following Old Knife Handle and Ye Fan.
Ye Fan and Old Knife Handle's group ran fifty miles in one breath before stopping to catch their breath. But then their expressions changed again.
"This isn't right. How can we still see the Primordial Ancient Mine!" Old Knife Handle exclaimed in a low voice.
Ye Fan also sensed something was wrong. He activated his divine eyes to look into the distance.
At the end of the sky, starlight flowed like water, vast and white, cascading down to the earth, converging on one place.
Without a doubt, that was the Primordial Ancient Mine. It was still less than a hundred miles away from them!
Unease, fear, anger, grief—all kinds of emotions rippled from afar, almost infecting them, just as before.
"How can this be? We clearly escaped fifty miles. Why hasn't the distance changed?"
Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan's faces turned green. Every inch of their bodies, except for their eyeballs, was trembling.
"We're clearly running... in the opposite direction. How does it feel like we're circling it?"
This result was hair-raising. The four of them felt utterly lost.
"Aren't we still alive? Keep running!" Old Knife Handle's voice was low. Clutching his tobacco pipe, he strode forward swiftly, covering hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.
By now, Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan were stumbling and crawling, their legs and feet unsteady. They fell several times before they could run again.
This couldn't be blamed on their cowardice. From ancient times to the present, countless Saint Lord-rank figures had fallen here. Compared to them, these two were insignificant.
Ye Fan's heart was also pounding. This situation was somewhat similar to the records in the latter half of the Source Heaven Scroll. Unfortunately, that part was too profound for him to grasp yet.
After escaping another fifty miles, they stopped and found themselves in the same situation again. They still hadn't escaped; they were still running in circles around the Primordial Ancient Mine.
"This is incredible. I can't understand it..." Old Knife Handle looked dumbfounded. While running, he felt he was moving away from the Primordial Ancient Mine, but once he stopped, he realized he was circling it, not leaving.
He squatted down, took out his tobacco pipe, and began to smoke it with a puff-puff sound, his brows deeply furrowed.
"Old Knife Handle, you still have the mood to smoke?" Li Desheng said with a mournful face.
"Think of a way, quickly." Chen Huaiyuan was anxious and restless, sitting on the ground, panting heavily.
Ye Fan could now confirm that this was the situation described in the latter half of the Source Heaven Scroll. The divine source had formed a "field," distorting space and interfering with time.
This situation was the most terrifying. It wasn't intentional but naturally generated by the divine source, almost equivalent to altering the "rules" and "order" of this region.
For now, their situation was still manageable. They hadn't entered a dangerous area. Otherwise, if they triggered unknown laws of heaven and earth, the consequences could be catastrophic.
"Daoist, have you figured something out?" Li Desheng looked at him hopefully.
Chen Huaiyuan also leaned in and said, "Young master, if you can find a way to get us out, I will reward you handsomely!"
"I've only seen a hint of it. This place is too profound..." Ye Fan was telling the truth.
The field energy disrupting this region was caused by multiple pieces of divine source, their source power interacting and naturally generating. This much could be seen.
But if there were other factors, it would be unpredictable. Only a Source Heavenly Master could determine that.
"The Primordial Ancient Mine contains divine source. It has likely long since become sentient." Old Knife Handle sighed from the side.
"If that's the case, it's even more troublesome. It can evolve killing formations on its own, leading to unpredictable and terrifying consequences." Ye Fan frowned.
The worst part was that these were all superficial guesses. No one knew what was actually there.
"If we keep running, can we find a way?" Ye Fan stood up, wanting to survey this area.
And so, the four began sprinting again.
An hour later, Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan were almost foaming at the mouth, collapsing to the ground. They didn't know how many "fifty miles" they had run, but they still couldn't get far away.
"How can this be..." The two gasped for breath, nearly exhausted.
"Could the divine source here be sealed with living things?" Old Knife Handle muttered in a voice so low it was almost inaudible.
Ye Fan remained silent. The probability was high, and whatever race was sealed would certainly be extraordinarily powerful, adding another variable to this place.
"I've heard that a Sacred Spirit has been born in the ancient mine. Even a Great Accomplishment Eastern Wasteland Divine King would fall if they entered."
"There's also a saying that an Immortal Clan resides within..."
Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan spoke these words while sitting on the ground. After running for so long, they were drenched in sweat and no longer as terrified.
These were all surface-level claims. The true secrets were unknown to anyone.
All these legends could be called a "guide." According to the records in the Source Heaven Scroll, they could lead to dozens of times more terrifying speculations.
Ye Fan had only studied a small part of the later sections of the Source Heaven Scroll, but what he had seen already filled him with boundless awe for the Primordial Ancient Mine.
A glimpse of the "guide" was already like this. The true essence remained unseen.
Based on his speculation, even fully understanding the Source Heaven Scroll might not be enough to comprehend the "truth" of the Primordial Ancient Mine.
This place was probably far more terrifying than imagined, likely hiding earth-shattering secrets.
Otherwise, why wouldn't even a true Source Heavenly Master dare to enter? The first ancestor of the Zhang family, a pinnacle figure in his field, was helpless and never dared to enter the Primordial Ancient Mine in his lifetime, considering it his greatest regret.
"Are we really going to die here?" Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan looked grim. Seeing Ye Fan silent, they thought there was no way out.
"Die? Not necessarily." Ye Fan stood up and said, "In another few dozen miles, we'll have almost circled the mine once. We should be able to figure out a bit of the situation."
What he feared was the Primordial Ancient Mine itself, but they hadn't approached it. They were still a hundred miles away. He felt they might find a path to survival, a way to break free.
After all, this was the edge, not the true core area.
After running another twenty-some miles, they indeed returned to their starting point.
"Daoist, I can tell you're a master, a genius in this field. You have to think of a way!"
When Ye Fan heard Chen Huaiyuan say this, he couldn't help but smile wryly. The so-called "master" was a slang term for a "tunnel master," another name for a disciple of a Source Heavenly Master.
People in this trade spent their days digging into mountains and burrowing into the earth, moving beneath the ground, never seeing the light of day. Those who excavated source veins were jokingly called "tunnel masters."
"Daoist, tunnel master, have you figured out a way to escape?" Li Desheng asked nervously.
"I have a way, but we need to take a risk..."
"What kind of risk?" Old Knife Handle took a puff of his pipe and asked.
"This time, we need to advance a few miles toward the Primordial Ancient Mine to better understand the 'field energy' here. Only then can we find a way to escape," Ye Fan said calmly.
"Tunnel master, are you crazy?!" Chen Huaiyuan jumped up, extremely agitated. "Who would willingly walk toward the Primordial Ancient Mine to die? Even those Saint Lord-rank figures only make a desperate gamble when their lifespan is nearly exhausted in their old age."
Ye Fan was drawing and calculating on the ground without looking up. "Only by measuring like this can we understand the situation and find a path to survival."
"Alright, let's do it!" Old Knife Handle took a deep drag from his pipe, tapped the bowl on the ground, and stood up.
"To be cautious, we'll only advance five miles. Don't go too deep." Ye Fan walked ahead first.
Li Desheng and Chen Huaiyuan looked miserable and reluctant, but they didn't dare stay alone. Now, they had to rely on this tunnel master.
When they stopped after advancing five miles, they were shocked to find the earth seemed to recede with a whoosh.
"This is..." Even Old Knife Handle was startled, his hairs standing on end.
They had only walked five miles, but when they stopped, they had suddenly advanced twenty miles. The starlight converging on the Primordial Ancient Mine was visible, like a vast white waterfall ahead.
"Daoist, you're going to get us killed..." Chen Huaiyuan exclaimed in alarm.
"It's fine. We'll return the way we came." Ye Fan was also surprised. The "laws" and "order" here were severely distorted.
Getting in was easy, but getting out was hard. In just twenty miles, the four of them struggled for an entire hour. They weren't walking back but constantly circling.
If Ye Fan hadn't carved special pattern marks along the path according to the Source Heaven Scroll, they would never have gotten out.
The marks left by Old Knife Handle and the others had all been erased, mysteriously disappearing. Only the Source Heaven patterns Ye Fan had left remained, though partially.
"How do I feel like we weren't walking in a straight line at all? We were turning left and right, taking many curves to get out?" Old Knife Handle was puzzled.
"This is caused by the field energy naturally generated by the divine source. Fortunately, we're only at the edge. The changes here aren't too complex. We're still relatively lucky," Ye Fan replied.
"Can we escape?" Li Desheng asked urgently.
"We need to test a few more times from different angles. Otherwise, I'm not confident."
"Test again?!" Chen Huaiyuan was tense.
"Do you have a better idea?" Old Knife Handle shot him a glance.
Over the next hour, Ye Fan tested several more times. The last attempt was the most dangerous, advancing thirty miles in one go. Even Old Knife Handle's face turned pale.
Now, they were less than sixty miles from the Primordial Ancient Mine. They could clearly see the silver rivers of starlight pouring down.
Pure white radiance completely flooded the area, appearing soft and sacred.
"What is that?!" Ye Fan exclaimed in surprise.
The Primordial Ancient Mine was underground and couldn't be seen, but everything in the sky was visible. Some dazzling objects were rising and falling from the mine.
The sky was filled with starlight forming a river, cascading down like a waterfall. Yet those objects were even more brilliant, sometimes rising into the air, sometimes sinking into the ground.
"They might be divine source!" Old Knife Handle squinted, his eyes shooting out two sharp beams of light.
"Divine source?" Ye Fan was shocked. Without a stone skin, absorbing starlight—had those sources become spirits? There were more than one; four or five points of light were rising and falling, and this was only what he could see.
"I see corpses..." Li Desheng's lips trembled, his face turning green.
"What? Where?" Ye Fan was startled.
"Right in the sky above the Primordial Ancient Mine, rising and falling. Sometimes they sink into the ground, sometimes they rise into the starlight." Li Desheng was shaking.
"Nonsense!" Old Knife Handle scolded. "The Primordial Ancient Mine has a mysterious, strange force blocking it. Even I can't see clearly, only some points of light. How can you see them?"
"My left eye... is a natural Yin Nether Eye. Occasionally, I can see some special things." Li Desheng was now terrified.
"A left Yin Nether Eye..." Old Knife Handle was shocked.
Ye Fan's heart also trembled. He had heard of such pupils. They were difficult to cultivate later in life; they were innate, capable of seeing through the Yin Nether.
"What else did you see?!" Ye Fan and Old Knife Handle pressed him simultaneously.
"Those corpses... keep rising, disappearing into the starlight, then slowly sinking back into the ground. There are many of them." Li Desheng spoke as if in a dream, his face drained of all color.
He couldn't see anything else, not even the divine source. His cultivation was insufficient, and his left eye only occasionally saw the Yin Nether clearly.
Based on what he described, Ye Fan and Old Knife Handle could already imagine the scene sixty miles away.
Above the Primordial Ancient Mine, in the silver waterfall descending from the sky, there were corpses bathing in the sacred starlight, rising and falling.
Just imagining this scene made their hearts race. What was going on?!
In addition, there were points of light and other things rising and falling, faintly visible.
"No wonder even the Zhang family's Source Heavenly Master, a man of extraordinary talent, didn't dare enter the Primordial Ancient Mine..." Ye Fan muttered to himself. This place was too mysterious.
"Buzz—"
Suddenly, a vast, powerful suction force erupted from the Primordial Ancient Mine. The starlight in the sky was instantly drained dry. The sky turned pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.
On the ground, it was as if a massive black hole had appeared, capable of devouring everything.