Shrouding the Heavens

Chapter 34: The Legend Of The Desolates

A rainbow that was two metres in length and one metre in breadth was ramrod straight as it stood in the sky, highly textured, resplendent and bright. Like a piece of sparkling and translucent crystal.

Inside there was a young girl of eighteen or nineteen, her complexion was smooth like jade and her figure was slender. She had a slim waist and her straight legs were long and alluring, she wore wore a light blue dress that seemed to naturally float. She exuded an aura of someone that had transcended the confines of the earth.

Everyone was in a daze, this young beautiful girl seemed like a fairy that was untainted by the world, an otherworldly beauty. Like a moving dewdrop on a pure white lotus flower as well as a snow lotus on the peak of a snow white mountain, giving a feeling of one that does not eat the food of common mortals.

The world was not lacking in astonishing beauties but it was difficult to find one that carried an atmosphere of transcendence, as though she had stepped out of the mortal realm and had become one entity with the natural world.

This exquisite and elegant girl was very serene as she gazed at the group. She said a sentence in a moving voice and only after pondering over the sentence for a while did the group finally understand. Her speech was similar to that of an ancient dialect, it carried a soft flavour and required them to carefully analyze before they could understand the meaning of the words.

“We are a group of people who have fallen into dire straits. Are you a fairy? Can you save us?” A female student tearfully said. Her body was dry and wrinkled and she looked like a doddering old woman. Finally seeing someone who looked like a fairy, she immediately cried out for help.

Lin Jia and Li Xiao Man also stepped forward with expressions of hope, they were previously rare beauties and the psychological blow they felt was simply worse than death. Seeing such an elegant beauty made them feel more desperate to regain their past looks.

There was a glow in the air that seemed to have been cut off from a section of the rainbow’s brillance, it coagulated to form a piece of precious jade and sealed the fairy-like girl within.

In reality, the crystal-like rainbow did not congeal and only seemed to have a form. The girl within was not hindered as her black hair cascaded like a waterfall, her eyes were moving like water and misty. Her skin was snow white and translucent seeming to radiate an otherworldly glow making her beauty even more astonishing.

“Have you people entered into the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land?”

Another sentence of soft and moving words and the group pondered for a while before understanding the words said in the ancient dialect.

“That’s right, we escaped from that place.” A female classmate that looked weathered helplessly cried as she looked at the sky, desperation written on her face. To a woman, such a tragedy was an immense blow and she was confused thus she did not consider her words carefully.

Upon hearing this, the serene expression on the girl within the rainbow showed ripples as she had an expression of surprise.

“They actually came out of there alive, this is really not simple.” She softly said these words. Her gaze continually swept past Liu Yi Yi, Zhang Zi Ling, Pang Bo and Ye Fan as she seemed to contemplate before an expression of even greater surprise seemed to appear on her features. She hurriedly questioned: “Are these your actual ages?”

“No, we aren’t that old. We have no idea why we lost dozens of years of our youth and vitality.” A male student eagerly responded and hoped nervously while looking at the girl in the sky.

The girl did not bother to look at him as though she had known that they had lost their youth and vitality but she continued to stare at Ye Fan and Pang Bo.

Ye Fan answered: “We were initially in our twenties but have no idea why some people aged while some became younger.”

“For real?” The girl in the air had on an expression of shock as she stared firmly at Ye Fan and Pang Bo and hurriedly questioned further: “Did the two of you eat a red fruit that was glistening with a scarlet red and sparkled like a crystal….”

Ye Fan was sure that the fruit they had eaten was exactly what the young girl had described and under the current circumstances they simply had no way to refute as Zhou Yi and the group were watching. He gently nodded.

The girl in the sky had a weird expression as she looked at Ye Fan and Pang Bo, as though she was looking at a priceless treasure and being stared at by such a moving beauty made the two people feel their hair stand and they felt very uncomfortable.

“May I ask if there is a way to save the people who lost their youth and vitality?” Wang Zi Wen could not keep calm under the circumstances and wanted to know if he could regain his youth.

“You don’t need to fall to despair, although it will be difficult to recover your looks, your lost youth has come with several benefits and many people in the outside world will be trying to wrest for you.” Seeing the expressions of confusion on the group, the young girl in the sky continued: “Don’t worry, fighting to obtain you isn’t a bad thing, conversely you can treat it as a an opportunity.”

“I…… only want to regain my past looks.” A female student tearfully said. Becoming old like this she had simply lost her motivation to live.

“Alright, let me first bring you people out of this ancient and desolate forest.” The mysterious young girl waved her hand and a rainbow encompassed the group lifting them into the air to float beside her.

This was certainly a mysterious world, based on the understanding of the group this seemed to be an immortal’s technique.

“This area is a far cry from civilization, if you people wanted to walk out, this would simply be impossible. This primitive forest has many frightening beasts and even if I met some of them I would have no other choice but to bypass them.”

Pang Bo had an expression of curiosity as he asked: “Didn’t you come from that celestial palace up ahead?”

“Celestial palace……” The young girl had a befuddled expression as she said: “What celestial palace?”

Pang Bo pointed at a distant tall mountain and said: “Aren’t there many palace halls over there that seem to extend forever into the distance. An innumerable amount of vast and imposing palaces that has many cranes fluttering about in the skies.”

“The legends are real…..” The young girl had an expression of surprise.

“What legend? Could it be that you can’t see it?”

“That’s right, I can’t see anything at all.” The young girl within the rainbow had a contemplative expression as she said: “Forbidden Ancient Desolate land, a forbidden ground since ancient times, a place that prohibits life. Since ancient times those who entered unknowingly and managed to live to tell the tale all said they saw a celestial palace that seemed to be close yet forever too far to touch.”

It was indeed so, the group had a flash of insight as what they were going through was exactly as the young girl described. Someone then asked: “Could it really be an illusion?”

“It isn’t an illusion, there must be a specific time and some special methods to enter the celestial palace. That kind of golden opportunity cannot be obtained by just anyone, it will be in sight but unattainable.”

Zhou Yi was very concerned for himself and asked: “Those who unknowingly entered the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land and managed to live, what happened to their lives thereafter?”

The young girl was like a snow white jade plant, lucid and elegant. She glanced at him and calmly replied: “Only one lives for every hundred that enter into the forbidden territory, even if they manage to live, they’re usually old and withered, nearing the end of their lives. However, their saving grace is that the sea of bitterness will be stimulated, if they walk on the path of cultivation they can cultivate with half the work, twice the effect.”

“Can we regain our youth?”

“It’s very difficult but not impossible. As you cultivate to a higher level, your vitality would increase and when you reach a certain level you can actually change your looks.” The words from the young girl immediately ignited their hopes.

“Is there anything at the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land? What power made us lose our youth?” Wang Zi Wen could not contain his curiosity and asked. This was a question that plagued the hearts of everyone present and they were resentful and helpless.

“This question can be said to have been there since ancient times. People have asked this question countless times but nobody is clear on why this happens.” The young girl brought the group and then swiftly flew, their surroundings were shrouded in a golden glow and seemed to be a rainbow piercing through the sky. The gentle glow blocked any wind and allowed them to speak without problems. She continued: “According to legend, within the abyss of the forbidden territory that rejects life, there is a forsaken place. Maybe an ancient person resides there or perhaps there is a type of terrifying force that exists there.”

“Hasn’t there been anyone who went to investigate?” Ye Fan could not help but ask.

“Since ancient times there have been untold number of people who tried to investigate but they all perished without exception.” The mysterious young girl looked back at the primitive forest behind her and said: “That entire piece of land had previously been dyed in fresh blood and bones were piled high like mountains. Each person that perished was an unparalleled expert.”

“That year, there was an immortal sect of the holy lands that had reached the peak of their strength since their founding.They sent out their entire force of several tens of thousands of formidable cultivators from the onset to open up the forbidden ancient desolate lands in order to obtain the illusive object of legends. However, the tens of thousands of people perished there and that immortal sect of the holy lands was nearly wiped out from this world. In the end only three to five people made it out, their legacy was almost severed.”

“So frightening?!” Pang Bo was dumbfounded.

“That was a devilish ground that was drenched with endless amounts of fresh blood, it’s lamentable for the unprecedented and flourishing immortal sect of the holy land, other than the tens of thousands of powerful cultivators being exterminated, even the few whose cultivation were at the pinnacle had become ‘desolate slaves’ to the abyss in the forbidden area, forever condemned to slavery.”

Hearing this everyone thought of the vicious cries that filled the night and the imagery of several hundred Zhang long iron chains being wielded, it was likely to be caused by the so called ‘desolate slaves’.

The rainbow with all its colours in profusion* was moving at an exceedingly fast speed, akin to the speed of lightning as the ground below passed by in a blur of colours. Even so, they flew for over an hour before reaching the edges of the primitive forest.

[Idiom*: A garish display]

At this point the sky had already began to darken and a small brightly lit town could be seen in the distance. Having just reached this area, seven to eight different rays of light rushed to the sky, each colour was different and there was a figure within each beam.

“It’s Wei Wei, she’s back.”

“Did you manage to find anything in the surrounding area of the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land? The nearby immortal sanctuaries have all sent their experts out and seemed to have been looking for something. You didn’t have any altercations with them right?”

“Since our ancestors could feel something from the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land, those experts from the immortal sanctuaries would naturally be able to notice it as well.”

The people within the beams of light were all old people and could all be considered elders of this young girl called Wei Wei.

“These people are……”

“They couldn’t possibly have entered into the Forbidden Ancient Desolate land and made it back out alive, right?”

Upon hearing the confirmation from the young girl called Wei Wei, the few old people began to laugh heartily.

“Ha Ha Ha! Not bad! Their sea of bitterness within their bodies have already been stimulated, they are excellent seedlings for cultivation!”

The group quickly descended into the small town and entered a well-lit hall.

“How can they be so young?” Upon seeing Ye Fan and Pang Bo, the few old people had expressions of shock and disbelief.

“Could they have eaten that mysterious fruit of the legends? This….. is simply impossible!” An old man was very shocked and said: “The nine sacred mountains encircle together to form the abyss, it’s been mentioned in the legends that each sacred mountain has a divine spring that has these mystical divine fruits and in total there are nine divine springs which produces nine different divine fruits. It’s been said that these fruits can allow one to shed one’s mortal body and exchange one’s bones!* How could these mortals even go near that place?!”

[Idiom*: Change wholly or to be born again (Daoist term)]