# Chapter 629: The Ancestor of the Cai Clan
An old man from beyond the domain riding a green ox, and Shakyamuni having once visited the Immortal Transformation Pool—this news shook Ye Fan's mind and made him think of many things.
Coming from beyond the domain, from the other end of the stars—these things touched him deeply. Ye Fan had always wanted to return to Earth, to return to his homeland, and these two people who could traverse the starry sky made him yearn for it constantly.
"Old brother, you know a lot. Could you tell me in detail?" He humbly sought instruction, truly finding it hard to imagine how the sick old man knew these things. Had he seen those two people?
Ye Fan couldn't help but carefully observe him. This old man had sparse hair, appeared to be in his fifties, and looked sickly, but what era he truly belonged to was hard to say.
"I saw it in an ancestor's handwritten notes. My knowledge is limited," the sick old man said. Still, he elaborated a bit, giving Ye Fan a deeper understanding.
Starting from the Green Emperor and the Cai Clan, the story made it hard for anyone to remain calm, because it involved some hidden secrets.
The Immortal Transformation Pool had a mysterious origin that no one could explain. No one knew what had happened there from ancient times to the present. Immortal treasures had sunk into it, astonishing people, yet unreachable.
Before the ancient era, perhaps an unprecedented great battle had occurred there, and it was possible that deities had been born there. Even peerless imperial weapons had been shattered and fallen into the Immortal Transformation Pool.
Emperor Wu Shi found the Chaos Stone in the pool, refined the immortal substance within it, and created the Primordial Bell. When the bell rang, it stirred all ages, its power unparalleled!
The Green Emperor was originally an azure lotus, born there, taking root on a piece of green copper, which brought him great benefits. However, before he transformed, the green copper piece was lost and left him.
The Demon Emperor, brilliant and extraordinary, ultimately did not rely on external objects but achieved enlightenment and became emperor in the post-ancient era through his own efforts, becoming one of the most powerful beings of past, present, and future.
The Cai Clan also had those with great fortune who entered the Immortal Transformation Pool. Thirty thousand years ago, someone used the Weapon Art to retrieve a piece of green copper and gained tremendous benefits from cultivating the Weapon Art.
When he heard this, Ye Fan's heart stirred. Was this the fundamental reason the Green Emperor destroyed the Cai Clan? A historical mystery was surfacing.
But the sick old man shook his head and said, "Ancient Great Emperors all had great magnanimity. They wouldn't destroy a clan for such a reason. There was another cause."
Ye Fan was puzzled. "What other reason could there be?"
"Everything started with the Cai Clan's ancestor..."
The Cai Clan possessed the Weapon Art, the highest secret art of Daoism, originating from the Eastern Wasteland. In fact, some had investigated and found that their ancestors had crossed over from the Eastern Wasteland.
"This clan is cursed. Every ten to twenty thousand years, some strange things happen, harming the world. That's why the Green Emperor acted."
"The Cai Clan is cursed?" Hearing these words, Ye Fan became even more astonished, feeling that many secrets must lie within.
"Seventy thousand years ago, their ancestor, in his later years, came from the Eastern Wasteland to the Central Province, heading straight for the Qinling Mountains, wanting to bury himself in this special place," the sick old man slowly recounted.
The Qinling Mountains spanned a million li, vast and boundless, but relative to the immense Central Province, this was merely a corner of its western region.
Since ancient times, the Qinling Mountains had endless legends. Many ancient tombs lay underground, and at night, old corpses often crawled out of ancient graves to swallow moonlight—this was the most widespread tale.
In fact, it was indeed so. From ancient times to the present, no one knew how many imperial lords and divine monks had been buried here. People had long grown accustomed to it.
According to legend, being buried here might allow one to cultivate into a Corpse Liberation Immortal. No one knew which ancient text recorded this, but some supreme figures accepted it, leading to later actions.
The Cai Clan's ancestor came from the Eastern Wasteland to the Qinling Mountains in his later years. Originally, there was nothing unusual, but when he located the Dragon Acupoint and arranged his own burial, he alarmed many people.
During those days, the entire Qinling Mountains echoed with immortal weeping day and night, and dragon qi rose to the heavens—a scene of extreme terror.
However, it didn't last long before it disappeared and returned to normal. People knew that the Cai Clan's ancestor must have been an extraordinary person, capable of finding dragon veins and determining immortal burial acupoints.
"This clan is truly cursed..." the sick old man continued.
Soon after, the Cai Clan from the Eastern Wasteland moved their entire clan here. Their ancestor still had his last breath left, but no one dared approach him.
He clearly had no life essence left, yet he was hard to kill. He often appeared in the Qinling Mountains and returned at midnight. During that time, the clan witnessed many strange things.
And during that period, a Greatly Accomplished King from the Central Province came to visit. A horrifying thing happened—he was strangled to death by the Cai Clan's ancestor.
"A Greatly Accomplished King, who had lived for nearly four thousand years and was invincible in the world, was strangled by a man whose life was withered, whose cultivation wasn't very strong, who only knew how to locate dragon acupoints—this is like a fairy tale," the sick old man shook his head.
Ye Fan was also stunned. His hair stood on end because he felt a sense of familiarity. This closely resembled a certain legend! It was greatly connected to him.
"In his final days, the place where he lived was dark and gloomy all day, with red whirlwinds blowing, eerie and terrifying, with inexplicable roaring sounds."
The Cai Clan's ancestor had only one breath left, but he held on for over half a year. All kinds of creepy strange things happened, even frightening several of their own clan disciples to death.
In the end, no one dared approach where he lived. He disappeared one night, leaving a letter with only a few sentences: if he could not achieve Corpse Liberation, his descendants would face great calamity.
The Cai Clan people entered the Qinling Mountains and searched for decades but never found his burial acupoint. They didn't know what had happened. They only knew that their ancestor's later years were too eerie.
"Eight thousand years later, on a rainy night of thunder and lightning, the Cai Clan's ancestor returned..." the sick old man said.
"What? How could he live that long!?" Ye Fan was very shocked.
"He had long been dead. In the black rainstorm, people caught a glimpse of him. He looked exactly like the portrait in the family, the only difference being that he had red fur on his body..."
Ye Fan's scalp felt cold. He increasingly felt this was related to him. This was exactly that kind of legend.
"He was no longer human. He appeared briefly and then disappeared into the depths of the Qinling Mountains. But the Cai Clan lost half its people overnight. The survivors also often experienced strange things, frequently losing their sanity and causing trouble in the Qinling region."
After that, another ten thousand years passed, and similar things happened again, even more terrifying, because by then the Cai Clan had become very powerful, so the calamity naturally grew larger.
When things calmed down, they invited experts from the Central Province, Western Desert, Southern Ridge, and Eastern Wasteland to come and understand the truth.
At that time, a Golden Body Arhat from the Western Desert came personally and asserted that the Cai Clan's ancestor had found the largest Dragon Acupoint in the Qinling Mountains, an immortal burial ground. Unless he achieved Corpse Liberation, he would be hard to destroy.
A Dragon-Seeking Heavenly Master from the Central Province was horrified at the time, saying that the Cai Clan's ancestor had encountered misfortune in his later years and had to do this, wanting to use the Qinling immortal acupoint to resist some kind of existence.
"The misfortune of an Origin Heavenly Master in his later years... so terrifying. Even fleeing to the Central Province couldn't save him, and even his descendants were dragged in." Ye Fan's spine ran cold.
He had also studied the Source Heaven Scroll and had felt that eeriness. He would likely face such a day in the future, and he didn't know how to resolve it then.
"That's right. The Cai Clan's ancestor was the third-generation Origin Heavenly Master of the Eastern Wasteland. After he left, he buried the Source Heaven Scroll in the Eastern Wasteland. Twenty thousand years later, someone obtained it. The fourth-generation Origin Heavenly Master came personally to the Central Province, sighed once in the Qinling Mountains, and left."
Ye Fan's heart was greatly shaken. Was this a kind of fate? Why did Origin Heavenly Masters suffer like this in their later years? What kind of existence came looking for them, such that even fleeing to the Central Province wasn't enough?
In the Eastern Wasteland, there were five Origin Heavenly Masters. Without exception, all suffered terrible things in their later years. The third-generation Origin Heavenly Master fled to the Central Province—he was the Cai Clan's ancestor.
The fourth-generation Origin Heavenly Master exhausted his efforts, schemed for decades, and hid in the Primordial Forbidden Zone, taking refuge in a place where extremes met. The terrain there connected to a dragon, forming a True Dragon Pulling Coffin Acupoint, but in the end, he still couldn't escape the calamity.
The fifth Origin Heavenly Master, the founding ancestor of the Zhang Clan, disappeared one night amid ghostly wailing and demonic howling, scaring a young child into stupor. He was suspected to have entered the burial place of Emperor Wu Shi—Purple Mountain.
"Without becoming a Corpse Liberation Immortal, it's hard to destroy. Every ten to twenty thousand years, the Cai Clan encounters misfortune, no matter where they flee..."
The situation was complex. Ten thousand years ago, someone saw a red-furred humanoid creature emerge from the Qinling Mountains. In that period, countless living beings died across the million-li Qinling range.
"The Cai Clan's ancestor died sixty thousand years ago, but his corpse still hasn't been destroyed. He appeared again?!" Ye Fan was astonished.
"Yes. And in the dead of night, he appeared briefly in his own clan. This ancient aristocratic clan had become many times stronger than before, but still couldn't resist the misfortune..."
"The Cai Clan was destroyed ten thousand years ago. The reasons were complex..."
The Green Emperor once entered the Qinling Mountains, searching for that red-furred humanoid creature, but couldn't find its trace. Otherwise, he would have eliminated it as well.
"So, he's still in the world..." Ye Fan shuddered.
"Until he achieves Corpse Liberation, he won't find release. The Qinling Mountains have many ancient tombs. The words of the ancients weren't without reason. This region is very mysterious."
Ye Fan was shaken. Even after death, an Origin Heavenly Master couldn't find peace. What kind of existence was this, requiring even a Great Emperor to act to eliminate it?
The sick old man said, "There are no immortals in the world. Becoming a Corpse Liberation Immortal is nearly impossible. But he might not be able to last forever either. He was probably mostly destroyed ten thousand years ago."
"What happened?"
Ten thousand years ago, before his death, the Green Emperor did many earth-shattering things: entering the Divine Ruins to seize the Desolate Tower, traveling to the Central Province to find the green copper.
In the end, before his nirvana, he wiped out the Cai Clan with a single finger and, using the Demon Emperor's immeasurable divine power, unleashed a slash toward the Qinling Mountains.
The Green Emperor didn't know where the red-furred humanoid creature was. He merely activated a Demon Emperor's killing thought. Even after his nirvana, if this thought didn't strike its target, it wouldn't dissipate.
"Where did he unleash this killing thought?" Ye Fan asked in shock.
"Sitting in the Eastern Wasteland, with a single thought, the world moved!" the sick old man said.
"What?!" Ye Fan was stunned speechless. This was simply inconceivable. Just how powerful was the Green Emperor?
"The Green Emperor was unfathomable. Being the only one to achieve enlightenment and become emperor in the post-ancient era naturally made him astonishing through the ages. His power was immeasurable," the sick old man said.
Ancient Great Emperors were one with the Dao, in sync with the world's pulse. They were too powerful for ordinary people to comprehend. Even after death, it took ten thousand years for their Dao to fade completely.
At the same time, Ye Fan was very surprised. What was the origin of this sick old man? How did he know so many secrets? Even several divine dynasties might not know these things.
"Fatty Duan De!" Suddenly, Ye Fan was startled. He saw a familiar figure moving through the mountains ahead.
"More people will probably come soon. The Immortal Transformation Pool and the Qinling Dragon Acupoint—both places hold unimaginable heavenly fortunes," the sick old man said.
Ye Fan hadn't expected that the red-furred humanoid creature in the Dragon Acupoint also had immeasurable value, possibly containing an Immortal Divine Pill!
"People from the Extraordinary Scholars Mansion have also come..."
Soon, some familiar figures came into view, including Holy Son Yao Guang, Holy Maiden of Yao Chi, and others. After more than two years without seeing them, these people had all made great progress.
"Wang Teng is here too!" His eyes flickered.
A golden ancient war chariot, its light soaring to the sky, Wang Teng stood atop it, crossing the sky like a heavenly emperor. Dragons and phoenixes sang, white tigers leaped, and dark turtles parted the seas—an extremely splendid sight.
The sick old man said, "Not long ago, someone saw some old corpses in the Qinling Mountains stirring. It's speculated that the existence in the Dragon Acupoint should appear. Whenever the Dragon Acupoint stirs, the Immortal Transformation Pool is sure to manifest."
This was a heavenly fortune, stirring up the winds and clouds of the Central Province. It could be predicted that all kinds of powerful figures would soon appear in the Qinling Mountains.