Shrouding the Heavens

Chapter 164 Jumping Across the Sea, the Other Side, Paramita

This was a small cauldron only an inch tall. It didn’t shine or have any divine energy fluctuations. It only had a grand and natural air.

It truly was tiny, but it had a majestic aura. It gave people a feeling of not being an item, but a land of mountains and rivers, a piece of the starry sky, a world of the natural Dao.

Origin Qi was very rare and was considered a rare treasure. It was a sacred material for refining Vessels, and it was very difficult to obtain. As for Origin Qi “foundation”, it was even more legendary and never seen. But now it had already been forged into a cauldron.

Ye Fan was very excited as he examined this cauldron. The more he looked at it, the more pleased he became. Xuanhuan represented heaven and earth. The three feet and two handles around the spherical center contained the world’s Dao and Truth.

Using his mystical arts, he tried to take out the cauldron, but he was startled to find that the small cauldron was as heavy as mountains and rivers, and was difficult to move at all.

“This…” This stupefied him. The cauldron was simply too heavy.

“RISE!” Ye Fan shouted and used all his might, sending all his divine energy towards the small cauldron, finally managed to take it out.

It was incomparably simple as it quietly hung in the sky. It was like a boulder from the creation of the universe as it floated motionlessly.

“Suppress!” Ye Fan sent it into the distance.

This cauldron that was less than an inch tall barely shook in the sky before all the various huge boulders around its path silently turned into dust. The stone forest in that area completely disappeared.

“A cauldron refined from Origin Qi truly is terrifying!”

Ye Fan recalled the cauldron, now frowning a bit after his initial happiness. This cauldron was too heavy and it was difficult for him to move or use it. It was like he was facing a huge mountain.

If it hadn’t been refined within his body and had a unbreakable bond with him, it would be completely impossible for him to budge it with his current cultivation base!

This cauldron was already releasing a majestic aura. If he could add the Dao and Truth onto it, it might really become a peak tier weapon in the future!

Ye Fan didn’t rush towards the seventh level’s five-colored mist flames. There was plenty of time for him to continue refining the cauldron. Right now, he wanted to increase his cultivation base

The most important thing was having one’s true power increase. If he just relied on the cauldron, he wouldn’t have perfect control of it.

The current him had a tyrannical physical body, an extremely dense divine energy, and if he could calm down and bitterly cultivate, he would definitely be able to break through in a short time.

Back in the Xixian mountain range in the Peacock King’s space, Ye Fan had already had some success. He only needed half a step to reach the peak of the Divine Bridge realm.

Thus, he was confident in being able to break through to the Paramita realm!

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Time passed. Ye Fan didn’t move at all, completely focused. In just a month, he finally reached the peak of the Divine Bridge realm and prepared to begin refining that fist-sized Source.

But just at this moment, he sensed an abnormality. Everything became hazy before him. He lost sight of anything and it was like he was completely lost.

“What’s going on?” He suspected he had fallen for someone else’s schemes, and had landed in a trap.

However, there was no killing intent. As he carefully looked around, he was completely shocked to find that even his divine sense could only see a hazy mist.

“My five senses and my spiritual perception…why are they so hazy? What’s trying to harm me?”

Ye Fan quickly calmed down on pondered over this. He then thought of something. “Could it be…”

He thought of a sudden possibility, a state of cultivation that he had neglected until now. Within the Divine Bridge realm was a bewilderment calamity. The Dao Scripture said very little about this, so he had never cared much about it.

Whenever he had been studying the Dao Scripture, he was always focused on its heart techniques and hadn’t spent much time on non-related topics. He never expected to meet this calamity now.

The human body held endless mysteries. If cultivators didn’t wish to remain trapped within the Sea of Bitterness and wanted to explore the other secret realms within the body, they had to forcefully cross the Sea of Bitterness.

Only by cultivating the Heavenly Meridian could one cross the Sea of Bitterness and arrive at Paramita. Only then could they escape this critical point of the Divine Bridge realm.

But as the Heavenly Meridian grew, just how far and where did it have to go to reach Paramita? Some people spent their entire lives without being able to cross through this space. They were forever trapped at the Divine Bridge realm, unable to cross over the Sea of Bitterness. This was the bewilderment calamity.

At the most critical moment, the five senses would be lost, their spiritual perception capable of seeing nothing. One would turn into a crippled person devoid of any of their senses. This was the most frightening thing.

The majority of people would meet the bewilderment calamity when forming the Heavenly Meridian and lose their direction. But it wasn’t actually that difficult to deal with. After calming down, they could pierce through and nothing would stop them.

Ye Fan had been cultivating very smoothly till now, reaching the peak of the Divine Bridge realm without the slightest mishap.

At this point, he became completely crippled. Endless mist completely obscured his spiritual perception, blocking his forward path. This was the most grievous bewilderment calamity.

“Step past the sea and reach the other side!” This life and death test was something he had to face. There was no way to back out. Otherwise, all his senses would be forever lost.

Ye Fan placed that Source beside him and the Bodhi seed within his robes. He was prepared to face this head on. There would be no regrets.

Powerful cultivators had to pass through this point on their own. Otherwise their future cultivation prospects would be grim and their spiritual perception would no longer be sharp.

This was a process that relied on the heart. Outside things could not help.

From a certain way of viewing it, although the bewilderment calamity was a tribulation, once one passed through it, one’s heart would be baptized, and the mind, instincts, and body would become increasingly powerful. Break past the superficial and reach the origin!

Ye Fan closed his eyes, turning silent and motionless. He only spoke out half a month later. “I won’t be bewildered…”

At this time, his eyes could only see mist. He felt as if he were stuck in a trap. With his mind completely focused on his Wheel and Sea, he could only see a segment of the Heavenly Meridian. He didn’t know where it led.

The bewilderment calamity was a life and death tribulation. It was definitely not an empty affair. Many powerful figures would all agree that this was an important moment in their past.

Ye Fan was now truly in danger. His senses became more and more muddled. His spiritual perception practically no longer existed. He felt as if he were completely sealed, unable to hear a thing, unable to see a thing…

“Searching my heart…where is the other side?”

Ye Fan wasn’t afraid or panicking. He was completely calm, focused on this question as he tried to pierce through this haze.

“Paramita…the other side…if I turn around, will that be the original side?” He was constantly asking himself questions. “The path of cultivation is long and winding. How could I possibly turn back? I can only advance forward bravely.”

The mist continued to seal him. His senses became weaker. He felt as if all his spiritual perception was gone. If he never passed through this tribulation, he would forever be halted like this, turning into a crippled person.

“In the recordings, it said the greater the potential, the more difficult it would be to break out of the bewilderment calamity. I shouldn’t be sad, I should be rejoicing.”

Ye Fan was still relatively calm. He didn’t become panicked, and instead even more confidence grew in him.

Half a month passed in the blink of an eye. He still hadn’t passed through the haze.

As time flowed by, a full two months had passed as Ye Fan experienced the bewilderment calamity. When his five senses were completely removed, he wouldn’t be able to sense anything at all.

“The other side, the other side…it’s not the other side I need to find. Wherever I walk, wherever I am, it is there. The place I stand right now is the other side.”

Rumble…

The haze rolled over and over, quickly retreating. The world once more became clear.

In just a split second, the dense fog completely scattered. His senses returned and were even sharper than before. A mysterious light enveloped his body, baptizing it.

He had passed this life and death tribulation, breaking out of the bewilderment calamity. His instincts were being baptized, his divine sense was being refined, his range of perception becoming increasingly wide. His mind and body felt as if they were being reforged.

Ye Fan focused his mind on his Wheel and Sea. That Heavenly Meridian had become even more thick and solid. It now shone purely, like the perfect frame of a bridge leading to some unknown place.

He stepped onto the Divine Bridge, directly walking to that place he had said was the other side.

The Heavenly Meridian shone brightly as he crossed over the Sea of Bitterness, reaching its very end. This was a holy land with clouds and mist. He could indistinctly see a huge Dao Palace.

Numerous white clouds blocked his view of it. In just an instant, the Dao Palace could no longer be seen. Ye Fan wasn’t disappointed, though. Having just broken through to Paramita, how could he enter the Dao Palace secret realm?

The legendary Dao Palace was located at the body’s thorax. Five divinities existed there. When cultivating this secret realm, all kinds of strange things would occur.

Nature is eternal, and so is called Mother Nature. The gate of Mother Nature is the foundation of heaven and earth.

Five divinities for five elements. The five Qis connect with heaven and link up with the earth. They are endless, capable of giving birth to the power of the Dao.

After reaching the Paramita realm, he felt his body changing. His mind, Qi, and spirit were all rising. His divine sense surged. His Sea of Bitterness grew to the size of a palm and shone brightly.

He felt as if he could break the sky with just a palm, and split the earth with just a step. This was the strange misperception he felt due to his power changing.

He didn’t move. He carefully began refining the Source. He had to stabilize his position within this realm.

He wouldn’t be able to reach the perfect state of the Paramita realm without more time, and so he still hadn’t gone through the “butterfly out of a cocoon” transformation. After all, he had just stepped into this realm.

The fist-sized Source was completely pure. It contained an unimaginable amount of Essence Qi. Ye Fan refined it for over half a day before finally using it up.

He then stayed motionless for another ten days before finally awakening, finishing with his cultivation this time.

“This is…” Ye Fan was shocked by a change in his Wheel and Sea.

He felt something extra appear within his golden Sea of Bitterness. Life force surged along the surface of the sea, with greenery starting to appear.

“What is that?”

Ye Fan was flabbergasted. There was a strange plant growing there. It was barely visible. It was a green lotus that actually had primal chaos around it!

“What’s going on?” He was very startled. He didn’t know why such a change had occurred.

Just as he wasn’t paying attention to it, the space above his Wheel and Sea ceased being misty or empty. It was now a blue clear sky.

Ye Fan truly was shocked to find these changes after stepping into the Paramita realm.

“The sky… a green lotus… could it be my Variation is appearing?” But he then muttered, “No… this is just the Wheel and Sea’s initial evolution, and isn’t a true Variation!”