After what had happened, no one was in the mood to rest. They hurried on their way, heading toward the outer reaches of the Desolate Forbidden Land.
After climbing another low hill, they looked toward the distant peak again. The buildings there had become even clearer.
The scale was immense, with palaces stretching endlessly, like heavenly halls that had fallen into the mortal world.
Unfortunately, they were nothing more than flowers in a mirror and the moon in water. This time, they had no chance of entering.
After passing a black lake, avoiding a black ferocious beast, and crossing another small hill, they continued onward.
"Why do I suddenly feel like my body is burning up?"
Everyone noticed something was wrong. Their skin suddenly turned frighteningly red, as if blood might drip from it, and every one of them felt as though a fire were burning inside their bodies.
"I... can't take it... It hurts so much!"
Everyone fell to the ground and rolled about in agony, tears and mucus streaming down their faces as thin traces of blood seeped through their skin.
"Ah..."
"I don't want to die..."
"Just let me die... It hurts too much..."
Crying and miserable wails rang out without end.
In the end, a layer of bloody energy swirled around everyone's bodies, as though they were bathing in flames.
Jiang Yun also felt unbearable discomfort throughout his body, but what came from within was a tingling, numbing sensation. It grew stronger and stronger, as though new flesh and bones were growing from the inside out.
He vaguely seemed to hear his blood rushing through his veins. It grew faster and faster, itchier and itchier, more and more numb.
It felt as though his entire body were shedding its mortal shell, discarding the old husk to give birth to an entirely new body.
No one knew how long it had been before the mountain area gradually quieted down and the painful groans disappeared.
An hour or two later, Jiang Yun slowly woke up in the weeds.
The sky was a clear blue, accompanied by birdsong and insect cries. As he sat up, he could visibly see that his skin had become smoother, returning to the state it had been in when he was eighteen or nineteen.
His body was also brimming with endless energy, as though he possessed limitless strength. He felt as if he could shatter a huge boulder with one punch or tear apart tigers and leopards with his bare hands.
With a thought, he opened the panel to take a look.
[Panel] Realm: Mortal Physique: Mortal Physique (Sacred Physique 1.92%) Bloodline: None for now (obtain through dual cultivation with a Dao companion) Cultivation Technique: "Dao Scripture" (to be learned) Reflection Points: None for now (can be obtained with a Dao companion) Source Space: 30*30*30 Dao Companion: None for now (single) Mark: None for now (obtain through dual cultivation with a Dao companion) Descendant Bonus: None
The little red fruits they had eaten earlier had grown from a branch of the Nine Wonders Immortal Medicine. Once they left the Desolate Forbidden Land, its effects had begun to awaken.
They had undergone a transformation, but his physique was still pitiful. There was enormous room for improvement.
Jiang Yun felt that Ye Fan's Sacred Physique purity had to be at least ninety-five percent or higher. Otherwise, how could he be called the First-Generation Sacred Physique?
He had no idea how many generations removed his own physique was, but it was still better than having nothing. With the panel, perhaps he could nurture it.
The Source Space had changed the most, expanding by more than three times.
"Source Space, Source... Could it be that the space grows as I improve?" Jiang Yun pondered to himself.
He had possessed the panel for too short a time. Since he could not figure it out, Jiang Yun stopped thinking about it. He could study it slowly in the future.
He remembered that Ruthless had split the Nine Wonders Immortal Medicine into nine, and each plant's fruit had different effects.
Although they all possessed the ability to transform one's body, the little red fruits they had eaten were especially effective for opening the Sea of Bitterness.
The reason Ye Fan had been able to smoothly open the Sea of Bitterness, which was as hard as Divine Iron, was because the unique energy contained within this sacred fruit had flowed into his Sea of Bitterness. It helped him break the curse that made it so difficult for the Ancient Sacred Body to open the Sea of Bitterness, allowing Ye Fan to advance by leaps and bounds.
This time, he had also benefited from Ye Fan and gained tremendous advantages. He decided that he would cover Ye Fan's early resources for opening the Sea of Bitterness.
After studying the panel, Jiang Yun looked around.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo had also sat up. Their bodies had shrunk considerably, and they wore ill-fitting clothes. They looked only thirteen or fourteen years old.
Compared to the original story, the two of them had eaten fewer little red fruits. Otherwise, they would have looked even younger, around eleven or twelve.
Scattered across the grass lay a group of elderly men and women, all radiating the air of impending death. They had gone straight from young office workers to an age fit for square dancing, skipping who knew how many years along the way.
"They... can't be Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Zhang Ziling, Liu Yiyi, Lin Jia, Li Xiaoman, and the others, can they?!"
Ye Fan and Pang Bo stopped examining each other. When they saw the elderly people, they were completely dumbfounded.
"Why did the three of us become so much younger instead?" Pang Bo asked in confusion.
"Because the three of us ate the little red fruits," Jiang Yun and Ye Fan answered in unison.
"Compared to growing old, I think becoming smaller is much easier to accept!"
Pang Bo, who had been somewhat depressed about turning into a child, said thankfully.
The elderly men and women gradually woke up as well. Unable to accept such a change, they let out shrill wails that were even worse than before.
They had escaped the Copper Coffin less than two days ago, only to pass out for a while. Now, they were practically about to be sent back into a coffin.
"Ah..." Lin Jia was on the verge of collapse. Her scream startled the birds in the forest into fleeing in all directions.
A beauty was like a famed general; neither should be allowed to see old age.
For a woman in the prime of youth to suddenly become like this was even harder to accept.
"Ye Fan, Jiang Yun, Pang Bo, why haven't you grown old? Why have you become younger instead?"
Zhou Yi stared fixedly at the three of them with clouded eyes.
The others also suddenly noticed that Ye Fan and Pang Bo beside them had turned into little kids.
Jiang Yun had originally been four or five years older than them. Now he looked eighteen or nineteen, as though he had beauty filters on him.
If the timing had not been so wrong, they would have praised him as a jade-like gentleman, unmatched beneath the heavens.
Meanwhile, they had become a group of white-haired old people. Even if they went square dancing, the lead dancer might find them too old to dare teach them.
The others temporarily set aside their grief and all looked over.
Jiang Yun and the other two were suddenly stared at by more than twenty elderly men and women. Their teeth-gritting expressions were enough to make one's scalp tingle.
Pang Bo felt uncomfortable listening to Zhou Yi's words and spoke rather impolitely.
"I say, Grandpa Zhou, you're not suspecting the three of us of causing this, are you? If we had such great divine abilities, why would we still be mortals?"
Jiang Yun did not explain much to them. He and Ye Fan merely kept trying to comfort them.
"Leave this place... Go to that Immortal Palace!"
Zhou Yi trembled as he stood up and pointed toward the distant mountain. There, palace halls stretched endlessly, like heavenly palaces descending into the mortal world.
Although their bodies had aged, their minds had not. He clearly pointed out their only hope at the moment.
If there were immortal Immortals there, perhaps everything could be resolved.
Everyone supported one another as they headed down the mountain.
Their bodies were old and frail, their arms and legs weak with age. Jiang Yun, Ye Fan, and Pang Bo helped support and care for them.
As they moved forward, Jiang Yun and the other two discussed something.
They felt that the little red fruits were too extraordinary and feared they would be unable to protect the branch that had produced them.
In the end, they decided that Jiang Yun would hide it. Jiang Yun pretended to leave to relieve himself, then stored everything in the Source Space.
If they merely hid it, it might disappear. Jiang Yun felt that keeping it in the Source Space was safer. He could give it to them again if they ever needed it.
The group continued onward.
Gradually, the others realized something was wrong. They were clearly separated from the mountain where the Immortal Palace stood by only one mountain, yet after painstakingly crossing a peak, they looked ahead and found another mountain still between them, as though nothing had changed.
They looked again, moved forward again, and crossed another mountain again, yet the result remained the same.
At that moment, everyone understood. They simply could not get close to it.
Just as despair rose in everyone's hearts, a streak of colorful light cut through the sky and flew rapidly toward them, especially eye-catching against the dim sky.
When the colorful light drew near, they could vaguely make out a human figure within that rainbow glow.
Seeing this, Jiang Yun was also filled with excitement. It seemed his cultivation life of flying through the heavens, burrowing through the earth, and traveling through the air was about to begin.
Whoosh!
The rainbow glow seemed to notice them and suddenly accelerated toward them. It was so fast that it made their tongues click in amazement. Like sunlight piercing the darkness, it arrived in an instant and was before them in the blink of an eye.
A figure stood in the air, divine radiance swirling around her body and preventing everyone from seeing her clearly.
They could vaguely make out that she was a young woman of around eighteen or nineteen. Her dark hair cascaded down her back like a waterfall, fluttering gently, with a stray lock falling across her chest.
Her face was like jade, her figure graceful and alluring, her curves exquisite. Her pale blue dress drifted naturally in the wind, revealing a section of slender, jade-like leg. She was as beautiful as an immortal fairy untouched by the mortal world.
Everyone was stunned by the suddenly appearing woman. On Earth, after experiencing an information explosion, they could say they had seen all kinds of beauties, yet this otherworldly fairy before them made them involuntarily stand there in a daze.
Her appearance fulfilled all their beautiful fantasies of Immortals. This incomparably beautiful woman seemed to have stepped out of the mud of the mortal world, like an Immortal from the Nine Heavens.
While everyone observed this "fairy," the lovely woman was also observing them.
She paid particular attention to Jiang Yun, Ye Fan, and Pang Bo.
Jiang Yun wanted to seek a Dao companion, but he did not dare entertain any improper thoughts toward the woman before him. He did not dare make any rash moves.
He did not know whether this woman's Immortal Spirit Eye could see through his Source Space.
This woman should be Weiwei, the one who possessed the Immortal Spirit Eye.
After leaving the Desolate Forbidden Land, they would reach the Yan Kingdom. The Desolate Forbidden Land was located within the Yan Kingdom.
The Yan Kingdom's six great Heavenly Caves were top-tier powers built around the Desolate Forbidden Land. Each had the support of aristocratic families and Sacred Lands behind them, serving as watchful eyes over the Desolate Forbidden Land.
Weiwei belonged to one of the six great Heavenly Caves, the Spiritual Void Cave Heaven. In the Yan Kingdom, she was undeniably a favored daughter of heaven, a peerless genius seen only once in a thousand years. By this time, she should have nearly completed cultivation in the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm and would soon be heading to a Sacred Land to cultivate.
She also possessed the Immortal Spirit Eye, allowing her to see through illusions and gaze directly upon the source. Those who possessed the Immortal Spirit Eye were as pure as Immortals and naturally otherworldly.
In the future, she would even purge Ruthless One's Lineage from the Shaking Light Sacred Land and take control of the entire Shaking Light Sacred Land.
This woman was far from simple.
Before you continue