Chapter 86 Boundary Between Life and Death

Clearwind Town was surrounded by many mountains. Ancient trees reached up high into the sky, and the primitive forest grew even deep in the mountains. Ordinary people didn’t dare to enter deeply into them.

Only after living in Clearwind Town for a while had Ye Fan learned that these forests were actually the outer regions of the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land.

Yan was a thousand kilometers north to south and one thousand five hundred kilometers east to west. The Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land was near the center of it. It was circled with countless great mountains. This primeval area extended over four hundred kilometers. 

The Spirit Ruin Paradise, the Hazy Light Paradise, the Jade Cauldron Paradise and the other Blessed Paradises all surrounded different parts of this primal land.

At this moment, Ye Fan was madly rus.h.i.+ng deep into the dense forest, wis.h.i.+ng to immediately enter the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land. He sensed that his life was now threatened and he wanted to leave that small town behind as far as possible.

“I hope I’m wrong…” After rus.h.i.+ng for over two hours, he didn’t know just how many huge mountains he had pa.s.sed over, but only then did he finally stop for a rest.

Suddenly, he heard a beast roar. The ear-deafening thunder-like roar came from the direction of Clearwind Town. Ye Fan agilely climbed up a mountain cliff and hid behind vines within a cave. He halted his breathing as much as possible, suppressing his life force as much as possible. 

Not long after, he peeked through the vines and saw a cyan scaled beast with a Jiang Family knight upon it rus.h.i.+ng through the sky.

“They really did come chasing after me…” Ye Fan’s pupils shrunk, and his heart turned icy-cold. The Jiang Family’s knights were extremely formidable. Having personally seen their might, he knew that if he were to be found he would definitely die.

A short time pa.s.sed and that powerful knight rushed away into distant mountain ranges, circling around the area.

“He’s locked down this area. Could it be that he’s found me?” Ye Fan felt ice-cold as if death was approaching him.

At the same time, he was extremely angry. They were most likely after his treasures. If he were to be found, he definitely wouldn’t be able to survive. But right now he couldn’t get emotional. He had to suppress his life force as much as possible, seeming just like a dried up tree within the cave.

Four hours pa.s.sed before the cyan beast flew away, gradually disappearing beyond the horizon. Ye Fan didn’t dare to move until the sky completely darkened. He numbly climbed out of the cave and charged towards a different mountain range.

“Jiang Family…” Ye Fan clenched his teeth.

Ye Fan didn’t light a fire that night. He only plucked a couple wild fruits to eat before hiding inside a thriving th.o.r.n.y underbrush.

During this night, countless unknown beasts’ roars rang out over and over again, making the land extremely restless. The moon and the stars’ dim light along with the swaying of the wild trees made it seem extremely gloomy.

Suddenly, all the beast roars stopped, turning the woods completely silent. Ye Fan’s heart tightened and he didn’t dare to move at all.

A strange beast had appeared in the sky at some unknown time. A person was mounted upon it as it flew around in spirals. The other beasts were all fearful of this beast.

Only late in the night did the knight leave this area. Cold sweat covered Ye Fan’s entire body. Continuing like this was definitely not a solution, as he would definitely sooner or later be found.

“Rus.h.i.+ng forward is definite death. How can I get out of this…?” Ye Fan couldn’t come up with any other ideas. The only choice was to first keep running.

Over the next two days, Ye Fan went into hiding continuously. Several times he had almost been discovered, and it could be said that he was constantly brus.h.i.+ng past death.

On the third day, he met his greatest crisis. The knight seemed to have sensed that he might be hiding around this region and so he brought out a spiritual weapon to cut apart the mountains, completely destroying that area and leaving it bare.

Ye Fan was hidden in a swamp not far from there. He didn’t dare to move. His body was covered with the sludge and rotted leaves and he suppressed his breathing as much as possible as he waited for this knight to leave.

However, the swamp didn’t slip past the knight’s notice. The spiritual weapon was struck like a bolt of blue lightning upon the swamp, forming huge ditches and completely tearing apart the land.

Suddenly, the blue lightning-like spiritual weapon streaked down less than a meter away. It tore through the mud, and although it didn’t cut his body, a little bit of blue light swiped past his stomach, causing him to feel a sharp pain. But he didn’t dare to shout or move. If his physique had not been so strong and was instead just like a normal cultivator’s, that blue light would definitely have chopped him in half!

An hour later, the land finally regained its tranquility. Ye Fan bit his lip as he struggled out of the swamp. Blood flowed from his stomach, and even the mud had been stained red.

“Jiang Yichen, a day will come when I slaughter you despite the Ancient Desolation n.o.ble Family protecting you!”

Ye Fan felt a burst of dizziness from the blood loss. His abdomen had almost been completely cut open. If the mud had not been blocking it or if he had not been so motionless, he would have definitely died from blood loss.

He hurriedly found a spring to wash his wounds, then washed off the mud from his clothes. His inner clothes, which could still be considered somewhat clean, were torn apart to be used as bandages. But the stomach wound was too serious. It was almost possible to see his intestines. The blood flow would not stop.

Having lost this much blood, Ye Fan felt as if his whole body was lacking any power. His hands were dyed in blood, and no matter how many clothes he tore up into bandages, the blood would not stop. His lower body was completely covered in blood, and his skin was even starting to turn pale.

Ye Fan tried to keep the wound shut with his hands, but the blood kept unceasingly flowing from between his fingertips. Biting his lips, he forced himself to stay awake and clear-headed. Using the Dao Scripture, he transferred all his body’s life force to try to stabilize the injury.

“The path of heaven is broken and cannot be repaired…”

Just at the moment when he was on the verge of losing consciousness, a sound suddenly came from the innermost depths of his heart. Hundreds of ancient characters trickled out of his heart, allowing his muddle-headed self to gradually become clear-headed. 

Having recovered his mind, he once more used the Dao Scripture to control his Life Qi to flow towards his wound. A blue light and chilling killing intent were forced out of his wound, and the Life Qi circulated to stop the blood loss.

Ye Fan was still very weak, but he could still just barely manage to stand up. He shakily walked towards the mountain forests. He had to find a secret place to hide. His wound was still very grave and he could no longer run.

Originally, Ye Fan had been hoping to be able to escape into the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land over these few days, as only then would those knights be worried about following him in. But now he was extremely weak, and after thinking about it for a bit, he staggered [a]back along the path he’d already taken.

He stopped in the middle of the rubble that the knights had caused while trying to find him, hiding between two mountains. 

Now that this place had already been searched, Ye Fan figured that the knights most likely wouldn’t come back here, at least not for a short while. 

Without food or water, Ye Fan hid within this area for two whole days before his wound completely stabilized, but he still found it difficult to make quick movements.

Over these two days, those knights had continuously been spiraling over the mountains, and many areas had been completely destroyed by them.

This night, Ye Fan crawled out of the mountains and plucked quite a few wild fruits and switched to hiding in a different area. This new area had just been destroyed by the knights. The trees were all snapped and stone mountains had been broken apart, turning the land into a complete mess.

“I’ll slowly follow behind you. Wherever you’ve just searched will be my new hiding spot.” Under such a dangerous situation, Ye Fan’s life was not guaranteed. All he could was carefully think of the knights’ blind spots and pick good hiding spots.

Five days pa.s.sed in such a manner before he gradually recovered. Due to the lack of food, he had become slightly sick during these few days and quite a bit thinner.

“If my physique had not greatly surpa.s.sed ordinary cultivators, my life would have long since been exterminated by that blue light. I definitely have to escape. I will not die here!”

“Jiang Family…” Ye Fan ground his teeth.

His strength was not great enough. The only way for him to escape the knights was to risk his life by entering the Ancient Desolation Forbidden Land. Once his body was mostly recovered, he once began to attempt detouring towards that area.

“Since I’ve already eaten the sacred fruit, I should be able to avoid the curse’s effect. Entering the region forbidden to life might actually be a kind of opportunity for me!”

[a]m