Chapter 684: Desolate Universe

The Desolate Restricted Zone, one of the seven great ancient forbidden areas, is a place where the living must halt, for those who enter will find eternal sleep.

At that moment, the people at the edge of the forbidden area were first stunned into silence, then erupted into an uproar. A person had vanished from the world, transported beyond the known realms into an ancient starfield!

According to ancient texts preserved by immortal inheritances, the five-colored altar enables one to cross the vast starry sky, covering immeasurable distances. For countless years, such individuals have ceased to exist, rendering the construction and activation of such an altar impossible. Yet, now, a person had simply soared away.

Amidst the clamor, there were also sounds of weeping and reluctance, the sorrow of a life-and-death separation that was hard to bear. Ye Fan had vanished, carried away by an ancient bronze coffin. The sight left the numerous cultivators outside the forbidden area utterly dumbfounded, a truly astonishing outcome.

After the nine dragons and the coffin vanished, the five-colored altar remained suspended, not falling. It shimmered with brilliant light, its dazzling runes etched into the void. Above it, the massive Bagua diagram did not dissipate; instead, it began to shake violently, its metallic luster rippling as if cast from divine gold.

At that moment, behind the Bagua Taiji, within the dim ancient starry path, the nine dragons and their coffin came to a halt, suspended invisibly in the void. Ye Fan was drenched in sweat, his hands constantly moving. Behind the runic Bagua Taiji, various patterns shifted with his gestures. He was using the method taught to him by the Black Emperor to alter spatial coordinates, hoping to correct their trajectory and return to the ancient planet Yinghuo. Ye Fan didn’t know the exact coordinates of Yinghuo, but he found a method within the imprint the Black Emperor had left on him: to completely reverse the original direction.

“The next stop might be the starfield of the ancient planet Ziwei, or perhaps another ancient source of life. As long as I use forbidden arts to reverse the direction, I can consider it my journey home, towards Yinghuo.”

Time was of the essence for Ye Fan. He quickly modified the eight trigrams behind the starry sky, causing them to flicker and instantly stabilize the ancient coffin. With another series of swift actions, he successfully reversed the course!

“Boom!”

With a tremendous roar, the Taiji within the Bagua diagram suddenly split open, and the nine dragons pulling the coffin began to reverse course.

“What is that…?”

Outside the forbidden area, everyone was dumbfounded, witnessing an unbelievable sight: the nine dragon corpses and the massive coffin had reappeared out of thin air!

“What happened? Did the starfield crossing fail?”“How did that ancient path vanish, and how did the dragon corpses and coffin reappear?”

Everyone was perplexed, assuming the crossing had failed and that the dragons and coffin had been cast back into their world. However, before their exclamations ceased, the bronze coffin and dragon corpses began to move backward, sinking into another side of the starry sky. The coffin led, with the dragons following behind, as they reversed their direction and entered a different ancient starry path.

“It worked! I, the Emperor, am truly a genius! My predictions came true; my judgment was correct!” the large black dog howled.

“You useless dog! You’re completely unreliable; I’d sooner believe a sow could climb a tree! How dare you experiment with something so significant? I should wring your neck!” Pang Bo exclaimed, wanting to strangle it.

This time, the bronze coffin moved in reverse, sinking into another ancient path and quickly disappearing from view.

Suddenly, the cry of a phoenix echoed from afar. A woman rapidly approached the edge of the Desolate Restricted Zone. From her crown, a golden light, tens of thousands of feet long, burst forth and plunged into the forbidden area, moving like a majestic true dragon.

“Li Xiaoman!” Pang Bo exclaimed, startled.

Li Xiaoman's body trembled. After the golden light shot from her crown, her body swayed, seemingly from immense exhaustion. The blazing golden light, like a deity or an ancient fierce beast, danced through the heavens and earth, soaring directly above the great abyss and rushing towards the nine dragons and the ancient coffin.

“What?! What kind of power is this, allowing her to fly within the forbidden area?!”“No, that’s wrong! She’s using a supreme forbidden artifact, something terrifying and unprecedented! It allows her to briefly wield magical power within the restricted zone!”

People were astonished by this realization. The tens of thousands of feet of divine light, like a golden ancient crocodile, instantly swept across a hundred miles, striking the altar and the Bagua Taiji.

“Li Xiaoman, what are you doing?!” Pang Bo roared furiously.

If the five-colored altar were destroyed, Ye Fan, who was still mid-crossing, would undoubtedly be pulverized in the void, though the bronze coffin and dragon corpses would likely emerge unscathed. Everyone was shocked that someone would dare such a thing, risking death to enter the forbidden area and cut off Ye Fan's escape route, essentially preventing his crossing of the starfield.

“Boom!”

However, the tens of thousands of feet of golden divine light did not succeed. Above the Desolate Ancient Abyss, several ancient figures simultaneously struck, raising their fists to the heavens and unleashing a combined assault. This was a monstrous wave of energy; five peerless experts had struck, their divine lights defying the heavens. Accompanied by the resounding music of the Grand Dao, an immensely powerful force shattered the god-like radiance. A shrill shriek pierced the air as the divine light was annihilated, vanishing completely without a trace.

Outside the forbidden area, Li Xiaoman trembled violently, then transformed into a black shadow and vanished on the spot.

“What? Just now I sensed a trace of divine power, an aura of immortality!”“It was an ancient forbidden spell, an auxiliary art for outer-realm deities descending upon the world!”“Precisely. That woman’s cultivation isn’t strong; that wasn’t her own power. There was another divine energy at play!”

“Li Xiaoman! I’ll avenge Ye Fan by killing you!” Pang Bo roared.

All of this was irrelevant to Ye Fan, as he was completely unaware of what had transpired. Having successfully reversed course on the ancient starry path, he had entered an eternal darkness. He had truly left that world, sitting alone in the bronze coffin, gazing forward, longing to see the light of Yinghuo.

The universe was boundless, with endless starfields, yet most of its vast expanse was devoid of stars, filled instead with deathly desolation and gloom, utterly silent. A terrifying, bone-chilling silence pervaded the vast, boundless darkness. This was all there was; this was the universe, nothing more. Not to mention humans, even a star seemed as tiny as a speck of dust. In this boundless, ancient universe, everything was insignificant. Even if the nine dragons pulling the coffin could destroy stars and obliterate entire domains, in the immense, dark void, they were too minuscule to even be considered dust.

Ye Fan embarked on his solitary journey, traveling far, yet unable to perceive the passage of time, as if he were forever frozen in that single moment. “Am I truly crossing a starfield? Why does it feel as if I’m eternally still?” He felt as though he hadn't left, still on that ancient star, having inadvertently entered a dark, enclosed space from which he could find no exit. “What has happened? Did my crossing fail? The five-colored altar was missing a crucial central pillar – could that be the cause of this problem?” Ye Fan pondered deeply. He had to understand his current state, or he risked perishing from exhaustion in this seemingly static universe. The bronze coffin was indeed moving forward. In the void, he spotted a massive meteorite, thousands of feet high, receding into the distance, which brought him a small measure of relief.

“Still, something isn’t right. Crossing a starfield shouldn’t be this slow; it should be instantaneous, like a flash of lightning. What have I encountered?” Endless doubts surged in Ye Fan's heart. This journey was definitely problematic and vastly different from when he had been passively adrift in a starfield years ago. Suddenly, he felt an incredibly rapid acceleration, as if he were traveling at the speed of light, before entering a tunnel. At that instant, Ye Fan found time to be chaotic. It would pass very slowly, then very quickly, an instant feeling like an eternity, as if he were experiencing a prolonged century.

“This is terrifying! To encounter such problems while traversing the starry sky… No wonder even ancient saints found it difficult.” Ultimately, Ye Fan felt as though he had endured millennia, on the verge of petrification. Confronted by the boundless darkness and silence, he was almost driven mad. In this vast universe, there was nothing but him, adrift alone on the bronze coffin with the nine dragon corpses. There was simply nothing else.

Ye Fan sat listlessly on the coffin, using cultivation to endure the solitude. He contemplated the Grand Dao, the universe, and the void, gaining insight into his own heart, and gradually found peace. After an unknown period, he opened his eyes. A faint glimmer of light pierced through the darkness ahead—it was a starfield!

“Thump!”

With a sudden jolt, the nine dragon corpses and the bronze coffin seemed to burst forth from a dark, enclosed space, instantly appearing in the real world and transcending their previous confinement. All this happened so abruptly. There was starlight around them, and while it was still dark and cold, it was no longer as monotonous as before, differing greatly from what he had previously seen. The nine dragon corpses and the bronze coffin were nearly motionless, having halted their rapid journey. Instead, they drifted aimlessly and slowly through the cosmos.

“I’ve broken free from a quagmire, escaped from a black box, but where am I now?” Ye Fan stood on the bronze coffin, stabilizing himself with his magic power, and gazed outward. Suddenly, his expression froze. The moment he turned around, he saw seven distinct stars—it was the Big Dipper starfield! He had spent ten years in that world, meditating and cultivating daily, and had developed a distinct perception for the divine power of different stars. Therefore, even though the positions of the seven stars he now saw were drastically altered, he still recognized them.

“Why is this? Did I not embark on my return journey? Why am I adjacent to the Big Dipper starfield, having not traveled very far? Is it truly because the five-colored altar was incomplete?” Being so close to the Big Dipper starfield, Ye Fan believed that if he relied solely on flight, he might well be able to fly back within his lifetime. However, if he wished to return to the ancient planet Yinghuo or Earth, there was no hope; they were too distant, and he couldn't determine their coordinates.

He had traveled beyond his original domain, entering the vast cosmos, far from any life-sustaining worlds. What he saw was utter desolation; this was the grim reality. “My desperate struggle ultimately failed. I still couldn't make it back home; instead, I've trapped myself in a lifeless ancient universe.” In this dark expanse, he was less than a speck of dust. He was neither an ancient saint nor an ancient emperor, making it nearly impossible for him to traverse starfields. “Must I truly spend a lifetime flying along this path, just to return to that world?” Unwilling to accept defeat, Ye Fan silently pondered. He then sat cross-legged on the ancient coffin, beginning his cultivation in the universe, in solitary, secluded contemplation beyond the known realms.

For over two months, the nine dragon corpses had drifted aimlessly in the darkness, pulling the ancient coffin. Then, one day, Ye Fan suddenly opened his eyes, sensing something. Suddenly, he was greatly startled. At the edge of the frigid void, something vast lay stretched out in the dimness, approaching him and no longer very far away.

“What is that?”

Activating his Source Heaven Divine Eye, he peered forward, finally discerning the object. His heart was filled with profound shock. It was a purple-gold warship, its age unknown, having drifted for countless eons. Dim and lusterless, it bore the heavy marks of time, immensely dilapidated and eerily silent.

“An ancient warship in the cold, dark cosmos!”

Ye Fan's heart pounded. To encounter such a vessel in a desolate universe devoid of life-sustaining worlds was truly astonishing. “It has been drifting for at least tens of thousands of years, perhaps even longer…” Ye Fan sensed an overwhelming feeling of ancientness and profound age. The purple-gold warship was scarred with numerous gashes and dents from ancient weapons, testament to a world-shaking battle it must have endured. Time had been merciless; the ship was covered in cosmic dust, long devoid of any luster. Hundreds of thousands of years had passed, leaving it appearing ancient yet remarkably unadorned.

Suddenly, Ye Fan was greatly startled. He felt a subtle sensation and his expression changed as he whispered, “What? A life fluctuation? Could there still be a living being on that warship?!”