Chapter 933: Charging Toward Earth
The old sage spoke very little, not uttering a single word from start to finish, except when eating the crocodile meat. Ye Fan had many questions he wanted to ask, but this old gentleman seemed to believe that silence was golden.
"Splash"
A wave of ink-black water surged up from the Demon Sea Eye. The ancient sage washed the crocodile god-skin, which looked as if it were forged from black gold. Every time he spread it out, it clanged with metallic sounds, interwoven with dao patterns, divine rays shooting in all directions, and auspicious vapors rising.
It was a type of divine material that could move even a sage. It contained the essence of a demon sage, impervious to blades and fire, immune to water and flames—rare in the entire world!
This divine skin, full of black metallic texture, overflowed with various types of dao light, naturally drawing close to the Great Dao. Even without being refined, it was already considered a treasure! It shimmered with a cold metallic luster, making it impossible for anyone to approach, carrying a powerful sacred might.
For beings of this level, a single drop of blood could kill a Great Power, let alone such a large piece of skin!
Ye Fan's eyes burned with desire, and he was almost drooling. The Divine Crocodile race's skin was their most precious asset. If made into armor, it would be a dream-level treasure.
Especially the Crocodile Ancestor—this was an ancient divine crocodile, revered as a demon sage. Its skin had long possessed an indestructible divine nature.
Unfortunately, the old sage didn't look at him. He threw away his own tattered beast hide and directly wrapped the crocodile god-skin around his waist, channeling terrifying essence to refine it. In the blink of an eye, it became a primitive beast-skin garment, though it seemed to be used merely for covering his body.
A waste of heavenly treasures!
Ye Fan really wanted it, but since the ancient sage had already wrapped it around himself, he felt embarrassed to ask for it. After all, this was something the old man had hunted himself.
Then, this wild-man old gentleman began to extract the sinews and bones, not holding back at all, refining all the good parts out.
He used the water he had drawn from the Demon Sea Eye to clean everything, then took the Crocodile Ancestor's divine sinew and used it as a belt, tying it around his waist. Such extravagance made one want to tear their hair out.
Ye Fan stared longingly at the huge crocodile bones. This was a set of treasure bones, pure white all over, shining with sacred radiance, more brilliant than the stars in the sky.
Their quality needed no elaboration—rare across the heavens, absolutely capable of being refined into a legendary saint weapon. But the wild-man old gentleman had no intention of deep-refining them. He simply placed his own white bone staff on top of them.
Dazzling light erupted, and Ye Fan had to retreat. The energy fluctuations were too intense. Even he, with his Human Sacred Body, couldn't withstand them. The Great Dao roared, shattering heaven and earth.
Piece by piece, the crocodile bones lost their luster, their divine radiance fading completely. They cracked and shattered, utterly destroyed. The terrifying ancient divine crocodile skeleton turned to dust, its divine nature gone.
But on the old sage's bone staff, an additional rune appeared, like a dragon or a crocodile. It could be said that the essence of the divine bones had all been refined into the bone weapon.
Ye Fan carefully examined the smooth bone staff and found many imprints of strange birds and savage beasts on it. He couldn't help but gasp. Were all these patterns imprinted in the same way as just now?
If so, the value of this bone staff was incalculable!
Ye Fan stared wide-eyed. The old sage was thorough—he had refined everything, leaving not even a bone fragment behind.
The wild-man old gentleman sensed his gaze, turned to look, and then reached out a large hand, splitting the mountain of meat in two. He sent one piece over, weighing at least a hundred thousand jin.
Ye Fan quickly retreated. For someone at his level, a sage was truly like a god standing high above the clouds, as powerful as a deity.
A single drop of blood or a single bone could kill a Great Power when it fell. Such a large piece of divine meat contained terrifying laws and could absolutely be considered a great killing weapon.
The old sage seemed to realize this. After thinking it over, he once again summoned dao fire and began to roast the meat, dividing it into hundreds or thousands of portions, filling the flames with fragrance.
Moreover, during this process, the wild-man old gentleman used his great power to extract strands of divine crocodile essence blood, turning them into a red chain that steamed with dense mist.
Ye Fan was horrified. Each strand of this essence blood had terrifying killing power. If actually used as a weapon, even a king who had severed the Dao would die in regret.
The old sage was actually refining medicine, in a very primitive way, directly extracting the essence from the demon sage's blood. Whether it was the blood in the flesh or the blood that had earlier spilled onto the ground, it all flowed like rivers into his palm.
Narrowing the vast into the minuscule!
The blood, like a small lake, all fell into the old sage's palm. He tempered it a thousand times, refining away the killing intent, stripping away the laws, leaving only the divine radiance.
Finally, with a loud crash, a large amount of filthy blood fell from the old sage's palm like a waterfall, vast and boundless, like a sea of blood pouring into the Demon Sea Eye.
In his palm, red rays shot up, entwined with strands of auspicious vapors. In the end, only six dragon-eye-sized red pills remained, crystal clear and dripping, as bright as red agate.
The old sage handed four of them to Ye Fan. A fragrant scent assailed his nostrils, making him feel as if he were about to ascend to immortality. His pores opened wide, as if bathed in immortal light.
Ye Fan knew that such precious pills were rare in the world. Only the old sage could defy the heavens to refine them. He had no idea what miraculous effects they might have. He carefully stored them in a jade jar.
By this time, the hundred thousand jin of divine crocodile meat was roasted, its internal killing intent and laws completely purified. The old sage handed it over. Ye Fan felt as if he were in a dream. This was a demon sage! And now it had become his food. If news of such a tonic got out, it would scare people to death!
He had many questions he wanted to ask, but the old sage remained silent, hardly saying anything. He walked two circles around the Demon Sea Eye, looked up at the sky, and stared blankly into space.
Seeing him like this, Ye Fan felt it was hard to disturb him. The other party seemed to be pondering some important matters.
At high noon, the old sage finally moved. He actually borrowed Ye Fan's cauldron, using dao fire to stew the crocodile's heart and liver into a pot of soup, and invited Ye Fan to drink with him.
Ye Fan was a bit stunned. It was a pity that a generation of ancient divine crocodiles had ended up so miserably after death, truly becoming a delicious meal, with nothing wasted.
This old sage really knew how to enjoy life. If news of what he was eating got out, it would absolutely shock everyone, scaring a group of sect masters and Great Powers.
His cauldron had become a literal soup pot, which was quite unconventional. Mother Qi of All Things flowed, accompanying the fragrant steam of the divine soup as it curled upward. Anyone else who saw this would be dumbfounded.
Was this extreme luxury or extraordinary transcendence? Probably any cultivator who saw it would be speechless.
Ye Fan was persistent, nagging the old sage endlessly, wanting to communicate with him. But the other party remained as sparing with words as ever, hardly speaking, only occasionally staring blankly at the sky.
In the end, Ye Fan had no choice but to bring up his greatest worry. If night fell, this master would surely transform from a god into a demon, and no one in the world could stop him. That would be a great disaster!
Ye Fan pointed at the blazing sun in the sky. He felt that the old sage could charge toward the sun. At an appropriate distance, it would always be daytime, and perhaps the demonic nature could be slowly dissolved.
The old sage shook his head, silently pondering. He had been paying little attention to Ye Fan all along, clearly absorbed in his own problems, worried that after the sun set, he would go mad and slaughter wantonly.
Ye Fan suddenly understood. The so-called "god by day, demon by night" was not related to light, but to the issue of his divine and demonic natures. The time for being a god and being a demon should be equal, mistakenly attributed to the alternation of day and night.
"I'm leaving." The old sage stood up and finally spoke a sentence.
"Senior, where are you going?" Ye Fan pressed. Naturally, they communicated through divine thoughts, as the ancient language was different from the modern one.
"To the desolate depths of the universe, to the darkness no one can reach..." the old sage murmured.
Ye Fan knew that he was permanently exiling himself, afraid of harming others. He willingly sank into the depths of the barren star domains, walking alone until he became a cold corpse in the depths of the universe.
"Clang, clang, clang"
Metallic sounds rang out. The fragments of the red divine chain that had broken earlier all flew back. The old sage used his great power to recast them, fusing them into a new divine chain, even more sturdy, engraved with layers of runes. He then sealed himself with it.
"Senior, you..."
"Self-imposed shackles. When my life is in danger, they will break. If nothing happens, they will suppress my demonic nature."
Ye Fan sighed softly. He didn't know if they would ever meet again. The ancient sage was too powerful. To avoid causing a slaughter, he would rather exile himself, growing old alone in a foreign land.
"Perhaps I will think of a way. The fusion of Taiyin and Taiyang..." the old sage muttered to himself.
Ye Fan's heart stirred. He quickly drew a Taiji diagram and handed it to the old sage, along with some principles of Taiji transformation.
"Your several secret realms, the methods you cultivate are all different, difficult to connect and advance. This is a major hidden danger. If I teach you Taiyin and Taiyang, it will harm you."
Before leaving, the old sage issued this warning. Then, holding his white bone staff, he tore through the void, broke through the bounds of heaven and earth, entered the star domain, and vanished.
Ye Fan stared blankly into the sky, gazing at the heavens for a long time before coming back to his senses. He let out a soft sigh, wondering if he would ever see this world-suppressing powerhouse again in his lifetime, hoping he wouldn't fall in the depths of the universe.
He lingered on the ancient Yinghuo Star for half a day, searching carefully, but found no more ruins. Everything had been swallowed into the Demon Sea Eye.
However, he did make some other discoveries. He saw some satellites and the wreckage of space probes, some from recent years, some from long ago.
"Voyager 48, Chang'e 19..."
Ye Fan observed carefully. These spacecraft were all badly damaged, mainly from a few major spacefaring nations. He guessed that on this sealed ancient star, no matter how many were sent, they would all crash.
Taking one last look at the ancient Yinghuo Star, Ye Fan decided to set off, charging toward his homeland. He really had no time to waste.
This time, crossing the star domain, although he hadn't directly returned to Earth, the ancient Yinghuo Star wasn't far from his destination. Of course, this was relative to the Big Dipper Star Domain. In terms of actual distance, it was still enough to scare someone to death.
The ancient Yinghuo Star was closest to Earth during opposition, at 55 million kilometers, and farthest during conjunction, at about 400 million kilometers.
One had to know that the ancient Yinghuo Star was within the solar system and was a planet neighboring Earth. Yet it still had such an astronomical distance. It made one sigh at the insignificance of humanity.
Ye Fan set off, rising continuously, quickly breaking through Yinghuo's thin atmosphere, finally escaping its gravity. He then offered up a Dark Jade Platform and began the repeated and lengthy process of crossing.
If he tried to fly back, he would probably exhaust all his divine power, and he didn't know how many months it would take. If there was any deviation, it could even be years.
He constantly corrected his coordinates, crossing toward the land that had given birth to and raised him. He didn't know how many Dark Jade Platforms he had used up before he finally saw the water-blue star clearly.
Ye Fan almost shed tears. How many years had it been since he left home? The closer he got, the more nervous he became, afraid that something bad had happened during his long absence.
In the past, he had experienced all kinds of life-and-death battles without being this nervous. But now, he was restless and uneasy, his body trembling.
"Earth, I'm back..."
Ye Fan's eyes were filled with tears. He pressed forward continuously, his heart extremely excited. Twenty-some years had passed since he had ridden the Nine Dragons Coffin away, and now, relying on his own efforts, he was returning. He couldn't help but tremble.
Wishing everyone a happy Lantern Festival, reunion, and completeness.
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