Shrouding the Heavens - Chapter 74

Chapter 74: Four Great Stages

The single paged golden book was simply unfathomable and the myriad of little words did not need to be read but rather became stars on their own as they shot towards Ye Fan’s mind.

At this moment, Ye Fan felt rays of lights shining down from the skies, the lands bubbled forth divine springs, lotus flowers begin to blossom, mystical herbs started budding. Divine red clouds filled the whole sky, simply flamboyant. An ancient tortoise spewed forth mist, the auspicious Qilin takes in qi, purple qi arrives from the east, gold light arrives from the west, a multicolored mysterious light illuminates and a seven coloured mystical rainbow covered the sky.

A plethora of Buddhist images and endless gates to enlightenment presented themselves, simply profound. It was like the relationship of humans between the heavens, or the sacred sounds of the great Dao, constantly resounding within Ye Fan’s heart.

His expression was dazzled as though he were dumb or drunk, like a desert that had first come into contact with widespread rain. Life was beginning to grow slowly within the yellow sand, Ye Fan felt as though many windows had been opened and all sorts of divine glows were shooting towards him. He tried his best to grasp something but the divine glow always eluded him, it was difficult to comprehend it.

This was not cultivation, in a short period of time no one would be able to comprehend the profundities of such obscurities, this was a impact by a type of ‘Great Influence’, the ‘Wheel and Sea Volume’ of the Dao Scripture was like a milky way of the highest heavens pouring down in torrents, its radiance violently spilling, endlessly imposing. What this volume talked about, it began to enter into Ye Fan’s mind in a very sweeping manner, allowing him to have a rough understand of what to practice and what stages he needed to reach.

Sea of bitterness, Spring of Life, Spiritual Bridge, Other Shore, these four great stages fully expounded the scriptural meaning of the ‘Wheel and Sea Volume’ of the Dao Scripture.

Cultivators had to first establish their sea of bitterness, allowing it to grow stronger and only in this manner would they be able to feel their wheel of life, because the two were inherently together.
Thereafter, releasing endless amounts of the qi essence of life, swirling above the sea of bitterness and flowing to all parts of the body, nourishing the body, organs and bones, strengthening the mortal shell and finally taking a step to exceed normal humans. This was the first stage recorded within the ‘Wheel and Sea Volume’ – ‘Sea of Bitterness’.

The sea of bitterness covered the wheel of life, one above the other below, superimposing to give life, each year one would leave a mark on the wheel of life and when the wheel of life was full of marks, it would thoroughly disintegrate and at that time a person’s lifespan would have ended, the time for his passing would have come.

Wanting to change such a scenario, one could only use the sea of bitterness to establish a path, reaching the bottom of the sea and forming a connection with the wheel of life. This would allow the qi essence of life within the sea of life to vigorously flow out, stopping the erosion of the sea of bitterness and extending one’s lifespan.

A quantitative change would result in a qualitative change, the abundant qi essence of life would surge and finally gather together, becoming a liquid and forming the divine spring of life, rushing into the sea of bitterness.

Cutting through the desolate sea of bitterness and creating the eye of the spring of life, connecting with the wheel of life and allowing the divine spring to gurgle forth, this was the second stage of the ‘Wheel and Sea Volume’ – ‘Spring of Life’.

In this manner, cultivators would then have a fountainhead of strength allowing them to utilise various mystical arts and divine abilities with unfathomably powerful abilities. This was a crucial step in a cultivators change and as long as the spring of divine energy did not stop, their magical power would be endless.

The reason why all cultivators could ride on mystical rainbows was because of the divine light that was released from their spring of life. After cultivating to the ‘Spring of Life’ stage, one could ride on mystical rainbows to travel, flying past the land and use a myriad of countless mystical arts.

The human body was filled with mystery and even strong cultivators did not wish to be trapped within the sea of bitterness. They wanted to search for other hidden areas within the human body and this created the process of strengthening the sea of bitterness.

The mystical arts recorded within the Dao Scripture had an endlessly imposing manner, even though the sea of bitterness was without end, it still needed to head back and nourish itself with strength to break through its confines.

In order to reach their goals, cultivators needed to allow their mortal shells to transform, forming a divine vein within their sea of bitterness and use it to break through the barriers reaching the next level of the sea of bitterness.

This slow and tiring process would cause cultivators to slowly become stronger, finally allowing the wheel and sea to give form to a divine vein, releasing the endless potential within their bodies and this would be the third stage of the ‘Wheel and Sea Volume’ – ‘Spiritual Bridge’.

Having cultivated to this point, cultivators had to be exceptionally firm and unswayable, only in this manner would they be able to see past the broken fabrications and dense fog, allowing them to continue to find their own shore.

During this process, not only did the mortal shell need to transform, the consciousness also had to take form, the spirit and body merging into one, breaking through the shackles and exceeding oneself, only then would one be able to return to their roots, finding their foundation and the spiritual bridge would arrive at the end like a rainbow, the forceful crossing of the sea of bitterness would be successful, this was the fourth stage contained with the ‘Wheel and Sea Volume’ – ‘Other Shore’.

Reaching the other shore, the flesh, organs and bone of the cultivator would dry up and a rebirth would occur, a shedding of the mortal’s body and exchanging of their bones would occur for nine times before they would finally break out of their cocoon and complete the transformation into a butterfly.

Sea of bitterness, Spring of Life, Spiritual Bridge, Other shore, these four great stages were separated like skies, wanting to breakthrough was a daunting task. There were many criterias to be met in each stage and one needed to gain experience and become stable before having a chance to transform.

“So reaching the second great stage ‘Spring of Life’ would enable one to traverse on mystical rainbows, this kind of cultivator could kill a cultivator of the ‘Sea of Bitterness’ stage as easily as squashing a bug.” Ye Fan felt shivers as he thought of elder Han whose cultivation level was at least the the ‘Spring of Life’ stage.

The separation between the four great stages had an immense difference in strength, as those there were a heavenly wide chasm between each stage.

Considering Ye Fan to be a cultivator at the stage of ‘Sea of Bitterness’ was really pushing it, the establishing of his golden sea of bitterness was simply too small, merely the size of a soybean.

Ye Fan was not dismayed, he had after all only recently began to cultivate and the time was too short, having such an accomplishment was already no simple task. Furthermore, his sea of bitterness was different from others, bright and splendid without any death aura surrounding it, each time it was nourished, sounds would shake the earth as though a vast golden body of water were surging violently. It was certainly exceptional.

Thereafter, Ye Fan recalled elder Han’s grandson Han Fei Yu, his Spring of divine energy had not gurgled forth and had yet to reach the second great stage ‘Spring of Life’ but he was already able to employ the green wooden treasure seal, a ‘Sea of Bitterness’ cultivator who could control such a treasure was enough to be a threat to him.

Having being impacted by the ‘Great Influence’, like a dream or an illusion, the ‘Wheel and Sea Volume’ of the Dao Scripture was like a grand and majestic historic picture scroll, unveiling itself within his mind before becoming like a torrential sacred river that could split the heavens and earth apart, roiling as it passed allowing him to have an initial understanding of the real meaning of the profundities.

There was no definite way of cultivating but this grand baptism gave him great benefits, this was a confidence that was gained towards the entirety of cultivating, he now knew the direction in which he would had to walk.

“There seem to be a few inconsistencies with the Dao Scripture I used to practice……” After getting a general grasp of the great mysterious sound’s meaning, he began to research anew from the beginning and discovered some abnormalities.

He discovered that the mystical arts recorded within this single paged golden book actually differed from the Dao Scripture which he had practiced within the Ling Xu sanctuary, the few lines of ancient words of the starting paragraph already contained some discrepancies.

“It seems that after the Wheel and Sea Volume of the Dao Scripture went missing, an incomplete copy was passed down and it wasn’t even accurate……” Ye Fan was secretly celebrating in his heart, if he had not had the serendipity to acquire this golden book, he would never have discovered that the Dao Scripture he practiced in the past actually had faults within it.

“I can still correct it now and allow the mystical arts to successfully become wholesome…..” Ye Fan acted on what he said and immediately started to circulate the true mystical arts recorded within the Dao Scripture as he began to cultivate.

A profound feeling welled up within his mind as he felt that his mind was clear, with the correction of the mystical arts, even more wisps of golden light were emitted from his sea of bitterness, flowing throughout his body making him feel unbelievably comfortable. His flesh, organs and bones were constantly being nourished and at this moment he felt as though he had an inexhaustible supply of energy.

At the same time, above the golden sea of bitterness within him, a mysterious change was occurring. There appeared various strange scenes, first the stars, next a formless mass that was giving off energy, this formless mass was derived from nothingness. Wisps of mists began to gather as divine red clouds began to glitter. These countless changes were never fixed.

Above the vast golden body of water, thousands upon thousands of changes were occurring, one moment a starry river was covering the sky, the next the sky would be endlessly desolate, life and death, growth and decay, end and beginning all continually exchanged in a cycle.

“This is the transformation from the real Dao Scripture?” Ye Fan was shocked, at this moment he could feel all the vigorous life forces of living things within earth, he could also feel the desolation of space and the dense death aura in the decay of space.

It was a long time before everything finally became calm, the golden sea of bitterness was even more condensed, if it was like a brilliant moon in the past, the glow from it now was like a blazing sun, the wisps of gold that were emitted were even more blazing and had an air of vigorous life in it.

“The real Dao Scripture is certainly exceptional!” Ye Fan lamented, he believed that he could go the distance and break through the curse of the ancient divine body he had.

Even with all this, he was not complacent or self-satisfied. He knew that there were a few ancient scriptures that could rival the Dao Scripture and were also endlessly profound, they were also complete sets and had not been lost, at this point they were likely within the hands of a Sacred Ground or an ancient aristocratic family.

“Presently, the mystical arts that I am cultivating certainly won’t pale in comparison to anyone, my starting point won’t be lower than anyone.” Ye Fan’s eyes seemed to shine with a divine light as he continued: “I will definitely establish my sea of bitterness, allowing the divine spring to gurgle forth. Form the spiritual bridge and reach the other shore, shedding my mortal body and exchanging my bones nine times before finally completing the transformation from a cocoon to a butterfly.

This is a really intense chapter to TL =(