Chapter 789: Purple Mountain Great Tomb
In front of Purple Mountain, Fatty Duan panicked and decisively offered up the lid of the Devouring Demon Jar, then… turned tail and fled!
He didn't want to fight; he wanted to escape. Even though he had half an Extreme Imperial Weapon in hand, it wasn't complete, and activating it would definitely drain him dry.
Lacking any expert demeanor or heroic spirit, he used the lid of the Devouring Demon Jar to protect himself and bolted like a startled rabbit.
That Saint was skin and bones, his flesh withered, but the vitality he emitted was terrifyingly strong. He wore a tattered battle robe from who knows what era and chased after him.
This was naturally Ye Fan. After taking over the Saint's body and coming here, he saw Duan De and wanted to teach him a lesson, which scared the unscrupulous Taoist half to death. He ran faster than a rabbit.
After briefly adapting to this body, Ye Fan immediately activated the Stride Art and quickly caught up, cackling eerily.
"Damn it, that laugh is so creepy..." Fatty Duan's hair stood on end. He shrank his neck, rolling like a ball, and his speed suddenly increased several times.
Ye Fan chased fiercely. The sparse hair on this body shell fluttered wildly, and the deep eye sockets glowed with a gloomy light, making him look like a ten-thousand-year-old corpse.
"Hehehe..."
Hearing this laughter, Duan De's skin crawled all over. When he saw the other party reach out a big hand to grab his butt, he was so scared he let out a yelp, turned into a black light, and dove straight into the ground.
Ye Fan activated his Heavenly Eye Penetration and saw that there was a tunnel leading to an underground altar. This damn fatty was so frightened he was about to teleport through the void.
"Hahaha..." Ye Fan laughed loudly.
Fatty Duan stood on the altar, his face changing between uncertainty and realization. He slowly figured it out. If this were really a Saint who wanted to kill him, he would have already attacked the Ancient Devouring Demon Jar.
"Son of a bitch!"
Duan De rushed out of the tunnel, stared at Ye Fan for a long time, then flew into a rage and cursed loudly, almost pouncing on him to beat him to death.
He understood feng shui and tomb burial studies and had cultivated the Yin-Yang Heavenly Eye. After careful observation and sensing, he recognized the familiar aura emanating from the Saint's crown chakra.
After finishing his cursing, Duan De's eyes grew fervent. "Having a Saint's fleshly shell like this to use makes entering Purple Mountain much safer."
After Ye Fan familiarized himself with this Saint's body, he felt that the withered Wheel Sea and Dao Palace inside had revived some vitality. Even the broken bronze bell and war halberd flew out, ready for his use.
But he also sighed. The strength of this physical body was beyond words—incredibly powerful! He felt like he could shatter a Saint Weapon with a slap. However, although some divine power had revived, it couldn't fully recover, after all, it had been dead for many years. Moreover, the primordial spirit had vanished, leaving no Saint laws or Dao insights imprinted.
This was a Saint's fleshly shell. After Ye Fan's primordial spirit took it over, the body was absolutely invincible, but it was extremely difficult to unleash power like a true Saint, lacking the corresponding heaven-defying law imprints.
"Those things are born in the primordial spirit. The imprints have long since turned to ash with time. Otherwise, how could you take over the Saint's shell? You would have been erased long ago! Unless it were the body of an ancient Great Emperor—even their hair or trimmed nails would be interwoven with supreme Dao principles and bear the most fundamental textures of heaven and earth," Duan De said.
Ye Fan asked the unscrupulous Taoist why Old Blind Man hadn't arrived yet. He said he had gone to borrow the Demon Jar from the Seventh Great Bandit, Tu Fei.
The two waited here for several days before finally seeing the old swindler, Old Blind Man. Compared to over a decade ago, he looked even more like an old con artist from the streets.
As soon as they met, he warmly grabbed Duan De's hand and shook it, then cleanly and expertly stripped off a string of Heavenly Demon Divine Pearls, putting them on his own wrist without a hint of embarrassment.
Duan De jumped up and down, cursing him as an ungrateful wolf who had no conscience, saying he had saved his life.
Old Blind Man rolled his eyes and claimed that he had saved the unscrupulous Taoist's life. It was the damn fatty who had robbed the ancient tomb of a certain Primeval Royal Clan, provoking an Ancestral King's clone to chase and kill him.
Neither of them was a good bird—that was Ye Fan's assessment. Neither of these two was decent; both were pretty scummy. Together, they were six of one and half a dozen of the other.
Old Blind Man's cultivation was now terrifyingly high. Ye Fan couldn't quite gauge it. Based on his guess, someone who was on the same level as Red Dragon Daoist back then should now be a King after the world changed.
"If we go in, setting aside everything else, what if we alarm the Primeval Royal Clan inside?" Ye Fan asked.
"Don't worry, they've all long since scrammed. Back when the Primordial Bell rang, all the ancient kings here were swept out," Duan De said, revealing some little-known secrets.
Back then, Emperor Wu Shi took over Purple Mountain and imprisoned all the guardians of the nine dragon veins inside Ancient Emperor Mountain, leaving them a place to serve as door gods.
"Sounds nice calling them door gods, but it was really just forcing them to stay here as servants guarding the door," Old Blind Man said.
Last time the bell rang loudly, all the ancient clans were shaken out and couldn't stay here. Purple Mountain was almost empty.
"Let's go, what are we waiting for? Rumor has it there's a Divine Immortal Phoenix Medicine inside. This time, even smelling its fragrance would be worth it," Duan De said impatiently.
"You grave-robbing little thief have been lurking here for over a decade. I knew you weren't up to any good. You even dared to enter the tombs of the Primeval Royal Clan. Today, you've finally lost your patience and set your sights on an ancient Great Emperor's tomb," Old Blind Man said.
"Damn it, I'm just a great archaeologist. All I do is restore history and witness miracles. Don't lump my noble ideals together with your petty swindler mentality."
"Bullshit!" Old Blind Man said succinctly.
"Stop arguing. Do we force our way in or find a passage to enter?" Ye Fan asked.
Duan De said, "Every great tomb is a beautiful work of art. Forcing your way in is a crime and a trampling of history, making you a sinner for all ages. We should walk in gracefully and appreciate it with a lofty mindset."
"Get lost!" Old Blind Man slapped him on the back of the head, casually threw a pile of tortoise shells on the ground, and started looking for an auspicious divination.
Finally, he pointed to a dragon vein and said it was the gate of life, with an auspicious hexagram.
Ye Fan looked and laughed. It was the path he had taken back then. But when they followed the underground ancient vein inside, none of them could laugh anymore.
At the deepest point, the natural yin-yang diagram had turned into a chaotic mass, becoming a Dao point that made one's heart tremble and shake uncontrollably.
Ye Fan was deeply shaken. Yin and yang had reversed, transforming into Wuji, the primordial beginning of the Dao. This was a terrifying Dao change!
There was absolutely no way in here. Forcing entry would likely result in returning to Wuji, immediately dissolving into the Dao, becoming a wisp of law, and dissipating into the world.
"This is your hexagram? You're nothing but a street swindler. Your skills are far inferior to my tomb burial studies," the few of them retreated, and Duan De grumbled.
"Even a master can slip up. That was once the safest door, but after Ye kid passed through it, it became the most dangerous place."
Then, Old Blind Man continuously deduced. The tortoise shells crackled and rolled around on the ground.
His expression grew serious. He repeatedly ruled out five dragon veins, verifying them one by one to be dead ends. Others had walked them before, turning them into impassable chasms.
Only three dragon veins remained. He deduced them one by one and found they could all be traversed. In the end, they chose a path with a slightly better hexagram and began to advance.
"Are we in the cosmos? How does it look like a star domain?" Duan De muttered.
This dragon vein was extremely difficult to traverse. They didn't know how many array patterns they had to break, passing through life-and-death danger zones before arduously reaching the end.
This was a dazzling starry sky. Walking into it would make one lose their way. There was simply no way to pass through without understanding.
"It really is a star domain..." Even Ye Fan was a bit dumbfounded. This path was too mysterious.
He couldn't help but think of the secret history of Laozi leaving through Hangu Pass. Opening the west gate of Hangu Pass connected to a star domain, leading to the Stellar Ancient Path.
Could this dragon vein be the same? Did its end lead into a star domain?
"This isn't a real star domain, but it's close. This might be a miniature star domain refined by Emperor Wu Shi," Old Blind Man said.
Ye Fan was stunned. How could they cross this? Separated by a star domain, how many years would they have to fly? They would probably die of old age before reaching the end.
"It's not a real star domain. There are flaws to exploit. Since Emperor Wu Shi left passages in the previous dragon veins, there must be a way through here too," Old Blind Man said.
Duan De said, "This might not have been left by Wu Shi. It could have been refined by that old ghost, Immortal Emperor, since this was originally his burial mound."
"That's not impossible. But as long as it's not a real star domain, there's still a way," Old Blind Man began to deduce with his tortoise shells.
And so, they started another arduous journey, risking their lives to move forward.
In one night, Old Blind Man pulled out a handful of his hair before finally figuring out a method: find spatial nodes. He believed there must be a path of life.
Several days later, they were lost in this terrifying star domain, unable to distinguish directions, completely losing their sense of space.
Suddenly, a black hole inexplicably appeared and swallowed them all.
"Boom!"
At that moment, the Saint shell Ye Fan had taken over displayed its terrifying side. A single punch shattered the void, carrying the few of them out.
"No, it's this black hole! If we pass through it, we'll cross this star domain!" Old Blind Man suddenly shouted.
"Then what are we waiting for? Offer the Devouring Demon Jar and pass through," Duan De said.
"No, if we activate an Extreme Imperial Weapon now, it will likely trigger the Primordial Bell to vibrate. That would probably shatter this place, and we'd be in grave danger," Old Blind Man shook his head, then fixed his gaze on Ye Fan.
"Alright, if you trust me, let me give it a try," Ye Fan said.
What was a star domain black hole? It devoured everything, destroyed everything. Only a Saint's physical body could probably withstand it. No one else could endure that power.
Ye Fan took them into his body, took a deep breath, and turned into a beam of light. Golden blood energy surged into the sky, illuminating the entire miniature star domain.
"Boom!"
He plunged into the black hole, passed through it in an instant, and after an unknown amount of time, appeared inside a purple mountain belly.
The light was somewhat dim. The jade palaces and towers seemed dusty, ancient and lusterless. Numerous ancient paths and caves connected in all directions.
They had successfully entered the interior of Purple Mountain. Duan De jumped up high, rubbing his hands excitedly. "People in our line have been studying a major topic: how to crack the tombs of ancient Great Emperors, especially Wu Shi's tomb. I am the first archaeologist to enter this place."
"Have we come directly to the deepest part, to the place where Emperor Wu Shi sat in meditation?" Old Blind Man felt uneasy all over, staring at a high platform behind the jade buildings.
Ye Fan and Duan De also looked deeper and immediately felt their hair stand on end.
There was a Dao platform there, extremely grand and towering, shrouded in mist, appearing mysterious and terrifying. Vaguely, they could see a tall figure sitting cross-legged on it, emitting a heart-stopping aura.