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Chapter 186: Nine Dragons Guarding a Pearl

Ye Fan and Er Lengzi returned to Stone Village. In the days that followed, he diligently learned the method of source-seeking from the elders in the village. At the same time, he actively prepared to enter the Purple Mountain, knowing he must understand everything about it.

"You've asked so many questions, could it be that you still want to enter the Purple Mountain?" Grandpa Zhang Wu frowned these past few days as Ye Fan constantly inquired about the mountain. "Please don't take the risk; otherwise, you'll only lose your life."

"Don't you want to retrieve the Source Heavenly Book?" Ye Fan smiled.

"Naturally, I don't want something left by our ancestors to be lost, but what can be done? The ancestor from a thousand years ago didn't listen to his own wisdom." According to Grandpa Zhang Wu, the Source Heavenly Book was a spiritual artifact that could be used as a weapon. "It was used to break into Purple Mountain, and it was never recovered; it’s impossible to get it back."

"If you tell me the past, perhaps I can retrieve the Source Heavenly Book," Ye Fan offered.

Grandpa Zhang Wu shook his head. "You have been very kind to our Stone Village. I don't want you to go to your death."

"I have means of self-preservation; you can rest assured."

Regardless of how Ye Fan tried to persuade him, Grandpa Zhang Wu opposed his dangerous plan.

Five days later, Ye Fan arrived at an ancient mine about a hundred li from Stone Village. This was where Chen Dahuzi and his group had discovered the ancient jade. Since that jade fragment was connected to the Purple Mountain, Ye Fan naturally had to investigate.

The area was desolate, completely uninhabited. The ancient mine was eerie and had been abandoned for an unknown number of years, emitting a musty odor.

It was a colossal mine shaft, like a giant sinkhole. The underground was pitch black and seemingly bottomless, making even a single person standing there feel a chill. "It won't be haunted, will it?"

The mine shaft was extremely quiet, not a sound. Ye Fan descended a full thousand meters before reaching the bottom. He was astonished; it was an enormous and rare ore vein. In ancient times, it must have yielded a vast amount of sources. Unfortunately, everything had been sealed away in the Archaic Era; no rare, precious sources would remain now.

"Crack!"

A sound came from under his feet; he had stepped on a withered bone. This was likely someone who had died in the last hundred years, not an ancient remnant.

The massive ancient mine was filled with tool marks, left by predecessors, telling a tale of the blood and tears of past source-miners. "Whoever left the ancient jade here must have had an extraordinary identity; it couldn't have appeared here without reason." Ye Fan quickly arrived at the discovery site of the ancient jade, but there was nothing special there. He searched for an hour before continuing deeper, wanting to explore the mine's furthest reaches.

He walked five thousand meters underground and still hadn't reached the end. This massive mine seemed to lead to the netherworld, dark and silent.

After walking another three thousand meters, Ye Fan gasped. An eight-thousand-meter-long ancient mine, and still no end in sight—what kind of concept was this?

Ordinary mine shafts were only a few hundred meters deep. This immense shaft made him think it couldn't be a single source vein; it must be many shafts that had been connected.

But why was there only one exit?

"If this is a huge source vein, it might be a legendary dragon vein..." Ye Fan was astonished. This meant that divine sources might have been nurtured here.

Clearly, many people had visited this place after the Archaic Era, leaving behind numerous traces.

After advancing a full hundred thousand meters, Ye Fan finally reached the end. He heard the gurgling sound of water.

There was no path forward, only a straight, downward-plunging deep hole, from which the sound of water emanated.

Ye Fan looked down, feeling the chilling cold of the underground river, like a dull knife scraping flesh, making his skin ache.

"Something is strange!"

He thought for a moment, then splashed into the water, proceeding through the underground river.

The river water was bone-chilling. Even with his divine power protecting him, he still felt the cold. After traveling about ten li, the tool marks from mining gradually disappeared from the river's edges.

Ye Fan gritted his teeth and continued. He noticed an unusual phenomenon: the underground river maintained a constant, straight direction. It remained so for another twenty li. Finally, after following the underground river for a total of forty to fifty li, he stopped.

Because at that moment, he felt immense danger. Ahead, a large, funnel-like black hole appeared, into which the entire underground river flowed, as if it could never be filled.

For some reason, upon reaching this point, Ye Fan shivered from a sudden chill. The massive, funnel-like black hole seemed capable of devouring his mind, filling him with a chilling sensation. "This isn't a good place. I came to investigate the ancient jade, and I want to enter the Purple Mountain; there's no need to risk danger here."

Ye Fan did not want to rashly delve into that colossal black hole leading further underground. He returned along the underground river, finally breathing a sigh of relief when he reappeared in the ancient mine. "Eh!" At this point, Ye Fan was suddenly startled, realizing something, and murmured, "Could it be...!"

He quickly rushed out of the mine, which was ten thousand meters long and a thousand meters deep, and reached the surface. Then, he determined the underground river's direction and ran across the ground. After running several tens of li, reaching the point on the surface corresponding to the underground river's end, Ye Fan was greatly surprised.

Just ahead, a desolate mountain range lay across the blood-colored earth, blocking his path. It was like a coiled dragon, winding and lofty.

Centered around the Purple Mountain, there were a total of nine such mountain ranges in various directions, and this was one of them. "What a grand feat!" Ye Fan exclaimed. An area spanning several tens of li, even nearly a hundred li, was connected to that Purple Mountain. Ye Fan had flown high into the sky to observe it more than once, noting that one end of each of the nine mountain ranges pointed towards Purple Mountain with great regularity.

He pondered for a moment, then returned to Stone Village. He sketched the Purple Mountain and the nine mountain ranges proportionally onto a piece of rawhide, handed it to Grandpa Zhang Wu, and asked for his insights: "Is there any particular significance to such a mountainous landscape?"

Although Grandpa Zhang Wu lived there, he was still a mortal and could not observe from high in the sky as Ye Fan could, taking everything in at a glance.

Upon seeing this clear topographical map, he stood up in surprise and said, "This is... you actually saw it!"

"So you know all about this?"

"My ancestor saw the extraordinary nature of the Purple Mountain precisely because of these nine ranges." Grandpa Zhang Wu spread out the rawhide and said, "Come, look. What does this resemble?"

"I can't tell what it resembles, but I just feel that the arrangement is very symmetrical, with one end of each of the nine mountain ranges pointing toward the central Purple Mountain."

"These are nine dragon veins, guarding a pearl!"

Ye Fan was somewhat speechless. These nine mountain ranges hardly looked like dragons, and that Purple Mountain, standing tall, resembled a giant iron sword, not a pearl at all.

"You haven't studied the Source Heavenly Book, so naturally, you wouldn't make this connection. But these are indeed dragon veins, nine dragons guarding a pearl!"

"Is there any significance to this?" Ye Fan asked.

"The significance is immense. The Source Heavenly Book contains detailed records. I only know a little. Such a 'grand formation' holds infinite mysteries."

Ye Fan was moved. "What is said about it?"

"My ancestor once said, 'Nine dragons guarding a pearl' represents the ultimate mystery of the transformation of heaven and earth!"

"What ultimate mystery?" Ye Fan pressed.

"Not to mention mortals, even powerful cultivators cannot withstand such a 'grand formation.' My ancestor only said one thing: only a Great Emperor of ancient times could manipulate such a 'grand formation'."

Ye Fan's heart yearned with curiosity. "Did your ancestor, the Source Heavenly Master, elaborate further?"

"No. But one thing is certain: my ancestor was startled and retreated precisely because he glimpsed the heavenly secret of Purple Mountain, and he didn't even dare to let the Immortal Fairies of Yaochi assist."

"This..." Ye Fan was shaken.

"Other ancestors of my Zhang family who studied the Source Heavenly Book could not fully comprehend it. They only deduced that a massive secret was hidden here."

Ye Fan became even more eager for answers. "Was there no clue, no glimpse of the heavenly secret?"

"Many ancestors consistently believed that all of this points to that ancient Great Emperor. He might have set up something terrifying here..."

"What did he set up using this 'grand formation'?" Ye Fan murmured, "The Archaic Era, according to cultivators, was a hundred thousand, even a hundred thousand plus years ago. What use could a Great Emperor from that time have for setting this up?" Ye Fan was puzzled. What meaning could a long-dead Great Emperor have in doing all this?

"Perhaps it was prepared for future generations..." Grandpa Zhang Wu shook his head. "Only by thoroughly comprehending the Source Heavenly Book can one truly understand what that Great Emperor intended."

There were living creatures there, belonging to a race from before the Archaic Era. Ye Fan mumbled to himself, unable to grasp the Great Emperor's motives. "I just saw an ancient mine that pointed directly to one of the mountain ranges; the underground there has been completely hollowed out, like a source dragon vein. Could divine sources have been found there?" Ye Fan brought up the abandoned ancient mine.

"Actually, the ancient mine leads directly to that mountain range, and all nine mountain ranges have been hollowed out underneath."

"What?!" Ye Fan was greatly surprised. "What a colossal undertaking!"

"The methods of ancient Great Emperors are unimaginable; they could certainly accomplish all of this."

"So, this was also done by that Great Emperor, not by later mining?" Ye Fan asked.

Grandpa Zhang Wu replied, "Some ancestors of my Zhang family speculated that all nine dragon veins contained peerless divine sources, but they were all excavated and gathered into that 'dragon pearl'."

"Why would that happen?" Ye Fan was startled.

"Ancestors who studied the Source Heavenly Book speculated that it was done to activate this 'grand formation,' to gather the essence of the nine dragon veins and store it in the 'dragon pearl,' truly highlighting the 'nine dragons guarding a pearl' concept."

Everything was in the pearl. The ancient Great Emperor's grand scheme revolved entirely around the Purple Mountain, with the nine mountain ranges merely serving as "green leaves," or supporting elements. "I truly want to know what that Great Emperor from over a hundred thousand years ago intended!"

Since ancient times, only a handful of Great Emperors have emerged in the Eastern Wasteland. They could forge ultimate weapons and create the most profound ancient scriptures, possessing heaven-defying abilities. What could be the purpose of such a Great Emperor going to such immense trouble and creating such a grand feat?

Time flew by; two months passed in the blink of an eye. Ye Fan learned a considerable amount of the "basics" of the Source Heavenly Book.

He had prepared for a long time, gathering enough detailed information, even figuring out where the Zhang family ancestor had entered the Purple Mountain. Now, he decided to act and enter the Purple Mountain to retrieve the Source Heavenly Book.

The Purple Mountain held endless secrets, and the Source Heavenly Book possessed infinite mystical power. If he could obtain and cultivate this book, he would comprehend everything.

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