Shrouding the Heavens - Chapter 42

Chapter 42: A Disastrous Setback

Time flew by quickly, Ye Fan and Pang Bo had already spent four months learning before the Ling Xu cliff. This was the day which the elder would give out medicinal liquids once again.

The dazzling and translucent jade bottle was no bigger than two inches, the circular bottom was no larger than one inch and the medicinal liquid contained within was really limited.

The medicinal liquid was jade green in colour and had a unique grassy scent, it had exceptional effects in aiding one to establish the sea of bitterness, saving the cultivator plenty of time and energy. It was rumoured that this medicinal liquid was forged from the essence of one hundred different kinds of medicinal plants, it was equivalent to the qi essence hidden within the wheel of life and was referred to as the ‘Hundred plants extract’.

“Shuaaa”

The elder atop the stone cliff transformed into a rainbow as he flew towards the sky, disappearing into the depths of the Ling Xu sanctuary in the blink of an eye.

Ye Fan and Pang Bo kept their jade bottles and were preparing to leave when a youth of fifteen to sixteen years of age walked over and like a thorn in their sides blocked their path saying: “Lend me the two bottles of hundred plants extract.” Having said this, the youth stretched forth his hands and grabbed, not giving either person a chance to reject him.

“Who are you? Why do I have to give it to you?” Pang Bo brushed aside his hand and stood there glaring at him.

Ye Fan saw fear in the eyes of the surrounding people as they all backed away, then looked at the youth’s hand which held five to six bottles of the hundred plants extract and immediately understood that this was an undisguised seizing of others possessions.

The face of the fifteen to sixteen year old youth darkened as his hand was brushed away and said: “You dare to stare at me?”

Pang Bo and Ye Fan did not want to cause a scene, all the people here were cultivators and they had only arrived at the Ling Xu sanctuary for a short period of time. They did not want any altercations and slowly backed away while planning to leave.

“You want to leave without saying a word, have I agreed?” The youth had a cold smile and grabbed onto Pang Bo’s wrist while his other hand grabbed at the hundred plants extract.

Although Pang Bo did not have Ye Fan’s strength, as compared to cultivators who had not managed to learn any mystical arts, his strength could be considered godly and with a shake of his hand he managed to fling the youth away, causing him to stagger, stumble and almost fall to the ground.

The youth was humiliated and flew into a rage shouting: “You dare to act against me! I will make sure that the both of you will be unable to get up from your beds for three months!”

At this moment, several other fifteen to sixteen year olds squeezed their way through the crowd. The surrounding people looked frightened and hurriedly moved aside as though they recognised these people. In each of the youth’s hands were six to seven bottles of hundred plant extract, it was clear that they had also forcefully taken these bottles.

These people speedily surrounded Ye Fan and Pang Bo, the youth who was shamed by Pang Bo cold laughed: “Teach them a lesson, make sure they can’t get off their beds for three months.”

“It’s true that where there are people, there will be grievances, this is true even for cultivators.” Having said this Ye Fan did not speak any further and strode forward. A youth had just jumped forward but was kicked aside by him.

Pang Bo also coldly laughed: “Even though we’re disciples from the same sect, you people still want to plunder, you really have guts. If I don’t teach you people a lesson, I really can’t imagine what evil acts you people will do in the future.” His moves were more forceful as he practically gave each youth a slap which sent them flying, making it seem like a ground full of fallen gourds.

“You actually dared to hit me?” The youth who initially riled matters had a swollen face as he stared hatefully at Ye Fan and Pang Bo. He swiftly stood up as he turned and ran while saying: “You two just wait.”

If one could not access the spring of divine energy within their wheel of life, even cultivators were merely stronger than normal people. When compared to Ye Fan and Pang Bo, they were simply like normal humans.

At this moment, a youth of fourteen to fifteen years old was talking to a youth in his twenties in the distance: “Your little brother is really so useless, we made him go over to feel them out but it ended up in such a disgrace.”

The young man in his twenties looked embarrassed, when faced with this youth who was younger than him he was filled with trepidation as he spoke with a look of respect: “These two people don’t seem to be all that much, is there really a need to test them?”

“It’s my granduncle who wants to test them, I heard that the two of them ate some sort of divine medicine……” The younger youth had an indifferent cold smile as he said: “Otherwise, I would have no interest in them whatsoever!”

The older youth felt cold sweat as he heard this, he seemed to be extremely frightened of the youth’s granduncle as he said: “Even if it was divine medicine, it has already eaten by those two. What plan does your noble granduncle the venerated elder have?”

“My granduncle feels that within their bodies exists some remnants of the strong medicinal properties. It’s a pity that we only recently learnt of these two, my granduncle was very upset about it.”

“This……” The youth by the side felt his body grow cold as he hesitantly asked: “Even if their bodies have some remnants of the medicinal effects, we couldn’t possibly extract it right?”

“ Since we can’t directly extract it, don’t tell me we can’t let out blood from their bodies?” The younger youth seemed sinister and cold as he laughed, he did not seem his age as he said: “In the worst case we can always refine their bodies, I think….. this is possibly what my granduncle plans to do.”

The older youth felt his heart palpitate, that elder who refined medicines was always vicious and merciless and as an elder of Ling Xu sanctuary, not many dared to provoke him. The two youths who were seen as medicinal ingredients by him would be hard pressed to stay alive.

The younger youth seemed to be speaking to an underling as he said: “Your useless little brother has come back, go with him to feel out those two people. Let’s see how their physiques are and if it’s actually worth it for my granduncle to use them to refine medicine.”

“Alright, I’ll go immediately.”

Ye Fan and Pang Bo had tried to stay under the radar but were still targeted. Right now they did not know that, just as they were squeezing past the crowd to leave, they were stopped again.

The youth in his twenties had seemed to have drops of brilliance shrouding his body, it was clear that he had cultivated some form of mystical art and could use a portion of some magical ability.

“Brother, you have to help me teach them a lesson!” The youth who stirred up matters earlier stared hatefully at Ye Fan and Pang Bo, the surrounding youths who were kicked away saw that they had someone to rely on and started to loudly berate.”

“Break their hands and feet then throw them into the lotus pond to feed the fishes.”

“Let the two of them bow down and kowtow one thousand times.”

……

The few youths hooted constantly, the person they could rely on was here and they continued to ridicule and scold Ye Fan and Pang Bo.

Ye Fan frowned, naturally he was not incensed by the few youths but felt that the situation seemed rather abnormal, as though someone was deliberately targeting them.

“Why did the two of you viciously beat my little brother?” The youth had a cold expression as he glared at Ye Fan and Pang Bo.

“Which eye of yours saw me viciously beating him?” Pang Bo said with his eyebrows raised. The situation had become one that could no longer be tolerated and even if he bowed his head and recognized his mistakes the other side would still viciously teach them a lesson. He could see that they were simply finding an excuse to do so.

“What exactly do you want to do?” Ye Fan asked straightforwardly.

“You two viciously beat up my little brother, naturally I’m going to help him vent his anger.” The youth coldly laughed and walked closer one step at a time.

At this point many people had gathered around and they looked over from far away. No one dared to come forward and help them, the few disciples at this stone cliff had mostly just joined the Ling Xu sanctuary and felt fear towards this youth which had a glow around his body.

“Break both their legs! Make them kneel on the ground!”

“Throw them into the lake to feed the fishes!”

The few youths started to hoot again.

“Shuaaa”

There was a flash of light as the youth rushed forward like a demon, extremely fast, his palms were dazzling and translucent like jade and made a knife like chop towards Ye Fan’s neck.

He did not use all his strength, in his opinion this knife palm blow of his would be enough to knock aside Ye Fan and have him fall to the ground. Contrary to his expectations, Ye Fan reacted speedily and took two steps back as he dodged very naturally. At the same time Ye Fan also stretched forward and a “Bang!” resounded as he grabbed hold of the fist.

“Let go!”

Although the youth was rather surprised, he did not feel that Ye Fan could possibly be a threat to him and wanted to fling Ye Fan aside. Matters fell short of his expectations as his fingers seemed to have been clamped by pliers, filled with intense pain and it was simply impossible to break free.

“Bang!”

At this moment, Pang Bo who was by the side threw a vicious punch to the back of the youth. The strength contained within was stupefying and the body of the youth trembled violently as blood could be seen dripping from his mouth.

Ye Fan was still holding onto that hand and as though he were brandishing a straw man, he fiercely swung the youth and heavily smashed him into the ground.

“Bang!’

There was a cloud of dust as the ground shook violently and the glow shrouding the youth had thoroughly disappeared. A miserable shriek was heard and fresh blood could be seen spewing forth, the youth was twitching on the ground.

The people in the surroundings were stunned, they could never have imagined that Ye Fan would beat the youth to the ground in such a convincing fashion.

The youth clearly had strength as he had already cultivated mystical arts but he did not have any chance to use them. Ye Fan could currently lift a huge boulder of several thousand jin with one arm, akin to strength of an elephant. Normal mystical arts when faced with such monstrous strength would find it difficult to resist.

“It’s clearly you guys who were picking a fight, we were only engaging in self defense. You people actually had the cheek to say that we viciously beat you, alright, let’s make your words a reality then.” Pang Bo was enraged as he speedily rushed forward,the few youths that were hooting earlier wanted to run but the surrounding audience was in the way and they had no way to get away quickly.

“Bang!”, “Bang!”, “Bang!”……

Pang Bo did not let up as he kicked all the youths back and held them to the ground before beginning to continually slap them as sounds of “Piak Piak Piak Piak” were heard non-stop.

“What did you guys say just now? Break our hands and feet and throw us into the lotus pond to feed the fishes? I seem to recall you also wanted us to kneel down and kowtow one thousand times, are you guys tired of living?!”

Pang Bo was vicious in his strikes as he continued to rain slaps, the faces of the youths began to swell like pig heads and miserable shrieks could be heard all around.
“You people haven’t even learnt a bird feather’s worth of mystical arts but actually want to be tyrants and bully people, you guys simply don’t know how high the heavens are or how deep the ground is. If we don’t properly teach you guys a lesson today, you guys would actually think you’re immortals!”

Pang Bo stood up us his feet began to madly trample the few people on the ground as they continued to miserably groan, Pang Bo felt more and more invigorated as he continued beating them.

“Tell me, why did you people target the two of us?” Ye Fan who was by the side did not remain idle as his feet fiercely kicked forth, the youth in his twenties was rolling on the ground, body spasming and blood could be seen staining his mouth.

“If you don’t tell us, I’ll throw you headlong into the pond up ahead.” Ye Fan kicked forth again, his strength was simply monstrous and the youth was kicked into the air and flew eight to nine metres away.

Pang Bo heard this and his face immediately lit up: “Good idea!” He crouched down and using his immense strength, he lifted the five to six youths simultaneously and walked towards the direction of the pond.

“No! Put us down!”

“Save us! They are committing murder!”

“Please I beg you to let us go!”

Pang Bo simply ignored them and began to throw them one at a time into the pond. There was plenty of mud and sludge within the pond and as Pang Bo had thrown them with immense force the few youths were thrown in with their heads first and their legs were in the air. They were all planted headlong into the sludge.

“Don’t kill anyone……” Ye Fan reminded.

“It’s okay, these useless things have all stepped onto the path of immortals. Although they haven’t managed to learn any mystical arts, their physiques are much stronger than normal people, they can hold their breaths for at least one hour.”

“Are you going to speak up? Could it be that you also want to fall in head first?!” Pang Bo kicked the youth on the ground again.

Pang Bo walked over with big strides and said: “Just throw him headlong, don’t speak any further with him. We’ll see if he still keeps his mouth shut.”

Ye Fan saw that the youth was still tight-lipped and did not continue speaking as he lifted him and forcefully threw him.

The group in the surrounding area were speechless, how immense was this divine strength? There was still a distance of forty to fifty metres from the pond and Ye Fan seemed to be hurling a lance as he threw a large living person there.

“Chi!”

In reality, this youth was really like a lance as he stuck into the mud ramrod straight. The top half of his body was submerged leaving only his two legs that were flailing about.

“Simply too incredible!”

“Where did this monster come from? Looking like eleven or twelve years of age, cultured and refined. How could there be such monstrous strength?!”

……

The surrounding people were flabbergasted and after a while they began discussing fervently. The crowd was feeling ecstatic that the bossy and domineering youths earlier were taught a lesson, they felt this was certainly justified.

Suddenly, the group in the distance began to part as a few people who had terrified expressions opened a pathway. A youth that looked to be fourteen to fifteen with a sinister and cold face slowly walked over. By his side were a few youths in their twenties with glows shrouding their bodies.

“This is elder Han’s grandson, Han Fei Yu……”

“His granduncle is an elder, it’s rumored that his granduncle is an expert in refining medicine.”

“Keep quiet! Don’t discuss about him, be careful that disaster comes from whatever you say!”

……

Han Fei Yu slowly walked forward with his cold countenance and said to Ye Fan and Pang Bo: “What do you think Ling Xu sanctuary is? Being so violent in front of everyone without any qualms, do you really think you are elders here?”

Ye Fan and Pang Bo did not bother about him and turned to look at the pond.

Han Fei Yu’s face grew colder as he told the four people by his side: “Don’t let those eye sores continue to remain in my sight!”

Hearing this, Ye Fan turned and said: “You sure can speak loudly, it seems that you were the one instigating all along. There’s nothing more to be said, today you will also fall in head first.”

Cold light seemed to shine from Han Fei Yu’s eyes as he indiscernibly muttered: “It seems that I’ll have to send two corpses to granduncle……”

[T/N: The literal meaning of the chapter title is to fall headlong]