While the Northern Region was in turmoil, Su Yu brought Yan Ruyu to the Southern Region.
In a few more days, the Demon Emperor's Tomb would appear, along with the Dao Scripture Golden Paper, the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon, and the Demon Emperor's Sacred Heart (?)
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Chapter 64: The Progenitor's Belated Dream Visitation
In Su Yu's view, there were major questions surrounding the Demon Emperor's Heart!
If it were truly the heart of a Great Emperor, the life essence Qi it contained would be enough to make someone a Great Saint. Yet in "Shrouding the Heavens," Ye Fan had extracted a few wisps of essence blood from the Demon Emperor's Sacred Heart while he was in the Sea of Bitterness realm, and this so-called Demon Emperor's Heart had actually been unable to withstand it and run away.
A single drop of genuine Demon Emperor's Essence Blood was enough to send a Desolate Ancient Sacred Body straight into Dao Palace Fifth Heaven, surpassing ten million jin of Source.
Yet in the original story, Yan Ruyu had continued to borrow the Azure Emperor's Heart for cultivation all the way until she reached the Quasi-Emperor realm.
The two accounts contradicted each other, a small bug!
This time, Su Yu had come in person, mainly for that page of the Dao Scripture Golden Paper and to help Yan Ruyu reclaim the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon.
Moreover, after recovering the Demon Emperor's Heart, he too could be tempered by Emperor blood when he dual cultivated with Yan Ruyu.
As for the forces of the various powers, Su Yu paid them no mind. The combination of the Immortal Platform Secret Realm and the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar was absolutely unstoppable in the early stages; no one could stand in his way...
"Yu'er, what's wrong? Is it because of your cultivation?"
Su Yu was walking across a patch of scorched earth. Seeing the beauty beside him lost in thought, he asked with some concern.
Yan Ruyu gave Su Yu a complicated look and shook her head slightly without saying anything, torn by her thoughts.
"You don't need to worry so much. You have me for everything!"
Su Yu smiled brightly and bent down slightly, pressing his handsome face against Yan Ruyu's cheek. Yan Ruyu felt somewhat helpless. Only after truly spending time with Su Yu had she discovered that he had a childish streak.
He was very immature when it came to romance and often said strange things. Of course, good looks were justice, and she was very happy about it.
Seeing Su Yu's concern, Yan Ruyu merely sighed softly and set aside her worries. Things had come to this, so what else could she do?
Beneath their feet lay a stretch of ruins, densely packed with ancient buildings. Though they had all half collapsed and fallen into ruin, one could still imagine their former grandeur.
Trees were sparse here, and the spiritual Qi was relatively dense. A vigorous vitality filled the place, making it comparable to the Lihuo Sect of old.
The endless complex of ancient buildings clustered around a volcano. Flames soared into the sky, and roiling magma boiled within its crater, setting half the sky ablaze with red.
As the boiling magma surged, a magnificent ancient hall, crystalline from top to bottom, rose and sank within the crater, emerging from time to time.
Thump.
The muffled sound came from within the volcano-or, more precisely, from the ancient hall rising and falling in the magma.
The ancient hall radiated brilliant five-colored light and was utterly crystalline. An air of ages flowed around it as streams of divine radiance circulated over its surface. It had been built from Five-Colored Divine Jade.
This was the destination of their journey.
Su Yu gazed at the ancient hall, his thoughts in turmoil.
He had long suspected the reason for the change in Yan Ruyu: the Azure Emperor had probably told her something. After they had joined together, Yan Ruyu's bloodline had suddenly become considerably purer, which was already quite telling.
He had just forcibly taken her as a concubine, and her ancestor had immediately come to make trouble.
Left with no choice, Su Yu had stayed by Yan Ruyu's side these past few days, attending to her every need and worrying that she might be displeased. He had even dressed and bathed her himself and washed her feet and toes, showing her the utmost consideration...
The truth was just as Su Yu had thought.
Yan Ruyu had indeed received a premonition these past few days.
On the second day after joining with Su Yu, Yan Ruyu had felt a stirring in her bloodline while cultivating. Her divine sense had faintly heard a call, and before she could react, a wisp of azure light had pulled her divine sense into an illusion...
She had truly met her own ancestor, the Azure Emperor-the only Great Emperor to attain the Dao since Desolate Antiquity.
The Azure Emperor's phantom had looked at Yan Ruyu and left her with only one emotional remark.
"The path to immortality is hard to complete; the Emperor Weapon will emerge!"
Afterward, the supreme Demon Emperor had passed away, transforming into a wisp of Green Lotus Qi that dispersed in Yan Ruyu's sea of consciousness. At the same time, an image of the terrain had surfaced in her mind: her ancestor's imperial tomb was in the Southern Region.
Paying no attention to the changes the wisp of yi wood Green Lotus Qi had brought her, Yan Ruyu had hurriedly sent people to find a map of the Southern Region. They had operated there for decades and were very familiar with the region, so they had soon found the exact location.
It was near Spirit Ruins Paradise, the former imperial capital of the demon race...
She had kept all of this hidden in her heart and had not told Su Yu.
The impending return of the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon had filled the fallen princess of the Plain Green Lotus Banner with mixed emotions and a trace of regret.
If this news had come earlier, her fate might have changed. Su Yu might truly have married her because of the Emperor Weapon, though he now doted on her and treated her with great consideration.
Now, looking into Su Yu's bright eyes, Yan Ruyu felt somewhat helpless, but also somewhat relieved. Things were not bad as they were...
Spirit Ruins Paradise in the Yan Kingdom, under Yaoguang Holy Land.
Ye Fan and Pang Bo were fleeing through a forest, relentlessly pursued by an enormous Jade-Horned Snake.
"Pang Bo, and you, that piece of trash, just wait! My granduncle will make you wish you were dead and grind your bones to dust!" a young Daoist roared furiously at the two of them, as the giant snake was about to catch him.
The giant snake flicked its enormous tongue, and a great deal of venom dripped from its mouth, corroding the grassy ground into black soil and sending up wisps of white smoke.
Listening to the petty villain's abuse, Pang Bo's eyes turned vicious. Driven to this point, he badly wanted to turn around and strike back.
"Don't act rashly. Elder Han is here."
Ye Fan's expression was grave. His keen spiritual body seemed to have detected something, and a thought stirred in his mind. He pulled Pang Bo to a stop.
The young Daoist was still screaming in terror. The Jade-Horned Snake was clearly no ordinary snake; it could use a few simple spells. It opened its bloody maw and drew in a breath toward the young Daoist. An invisible suction appeared in the space around them, so powerful that it snapped the trunks of several enormous trees.
Suddenly, a treasured seal appeared. Weighing ten thousand jun, it burst with green light, wisps of azure mist curling around it, and smashed down with tremendous force.
Bang!
With a tremendous crash, the jade horn on the Jade-Horned Snake's head released a beam of light that knocked the treasured seal flying. Nearby, Ye Fan suppressed the fear in his heart. He sensed a terrifying presence drawing closer and closer; it was probably Elder Han.
To avoid trouble, he could only pretend to be doing his best to save the Daoist while observing from the sidelines.
A beam of divine light soon flew over from the distance.
A Divine Rainbow rushed in, green light flickered, and a hunched old man with disheveled hair appeared. He grabbed Han Feiyu, then swept his gaze over Ye Fan and smiled at him.
A chill of disgust ran through Pang Bo. He seemed to want to say something, yet dared not speak. Ye Fan, neither humble nor arrogant, bowed to the old man.
The gaunt old man ignored everyone else. He summoned a jade ruler and killed the giant snake, then walked forward with the green wooden ruler in hand and pried off its jade horn. He also removed an enormous gallbladder from the snake's corpse and swallowed it whole.
[Thanks to readers Bai Zetong and Wuguan Tongyang for the monthly votes! Thank you very much!]
[My explanation for the Azure Emperor's choice: the Desolate Pagoda had probably failed to evolve the Immortal Domain, and the Azure Emperor's primordial spirit was about to fall into slumber, so he released the Emperor Weapon. In the original story, the Green Lotus into which the Azure Emperor transformed took root in Ye Fan's Bitter Sea and eventually awakened the Azure Emperor.]
Chapter 65: The Golden Page of the Dao Scripture
Looking at the sinister, white-haired Elder Han, Ye Fan felt waves of cold run down his spine.
Because of the Sacred Fruit, the old bastard had taken a fancy to his body.
Elder Han gave Ye Fan a sinister look, making no effort to conceal the desire in his eyes. His gaze was scorching, enough to make one's hair stand on end.
Just as Ye Fan was growing uneasy, Elder Han gently patted him on the shoulder. Then he drifted backward like a ghost, leaving the two of them behind.
"I have high hopes for you. Cultivate well from now on." The old man's words carried an unconcealable air of death. In the blink of an eye, he vanished from their sight, flying into the depths of the ruins.
"Yezi, did that old bastard really just leave like that?" Pang Bo was somewhat suspicious and deeply worried about his companion.
Ye Fan took a deep breath and said gravely, "Pay him no mind. If it really comes to it, we can always leave Spirit Ruins Paradise. The Big Dipper is vast; there will be a place for us somewhere."
Pang Bo also took a deep breath, and his previously taut body began to relax, though his expression remained grim.
Only now did he understand what that Daoist priest had said back then about the precious value of the divine fruit... These cultivators really were capable of "eating people."
"Since we've chosen this path, we have to walk it one step at a time."
Ye Fan's gaze was clear, and a look of determination appeared on his face.
He had cultivated in Spirit Ruins Paradise for a year and learned a great deal about the cultivation world.
He also understood Daoist Priest Su Yu's goodwill even better: he had seen the Sacred Fruit and remained unmoved...
If Su Yu had taken all the Sacred Fruit back then, things might have been better. If Ye Fan had not eaten one, he would not have become Elder Han's target.
Ye Fan had also learned that his constitution could not cultivate, but he had never given up. He had painstakingly opened his Bitter Sea and was still struggling along the path of cultivation.
The Dao Scripture's Wheel Sea Scroll held by Spirit Ruins Paradise was merely a fragment of an incomplete text, accounting for less than a tenth of the whole. It could only help newly initiated cultivation seedlings connect with their Bitter Seas and contained no subsequent methods...
As someone with a useless physique, his future was shrouded in uncertainty, and he did not know which way to go.
Ye Fan had now reached the lowest point in his life...
Not far away, Su Yu was carefully examining the ancient hall, trying to see whether he could enter ahead of time and hoping for some change.
For the mighty Demon Emperor to have left a few sentient weapons for his descendants was quite a pitfall.
Suddenly, Su Yu's divine sense stirred, and he detected cultivators approaching from nearby, both humans and a good number of demons.
Yan Ruyu also noticed the demons nearby. Her beautiful eyes flickered, and she glanced at Su Yu. Su Yu gently stroked her hair and breathed warm air against her ear, saying softly, "Don't worry. We only came to retrieve the Green Lotus Emperor Weapon this time."
Her earlobes turned red. During this time, the two had been intimately close and fit together without the slightest gap, but she still had not been able to let herself go completely or grow accustomed to being together like this...
As time slowly passed, the boiling magma, an unusually seductive red, continued to pour outward like fresh blood. The radiant ancient hall slowly rose, gradually nearing the mouth of the volcano.
The ancient hall built of Five-Colored Divine Jade gave another muffled rumble. The power sealing it was rapidly fading, and it had almost fully risen to the crater. Rosy light flowed around it, and five-colored divine radiance flickered.
At the same time, the disturbance drew over all the surrounding cultivators.
Among the palace complex at the foot of the volcano, superlatively fierce birds and savage beasts such as the Lightning Birds, as well as more than a dozen elders of Spirit Ruins Paradise, could no longer hold back and slowly advanced up the mountain.
Su Yu and Yan Ruyu hid within a patch of void, looking down at the divine jade palace. A Green Lotus imprint shone on Yan Ruyu's body, its Dao resonance flowing and faintly answering the heartwood of the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree at Su Yu's chest from afar.
The heartwood of the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree was lustrous and translucent, sending out wisps of Dao ripples. Mysterious and profound patterns also emerged on the Green Lotus imprint, their Dao resonances singing in response to each other.