Shrouding the Heavens: Simultaneous Transmigration, Heavenly Emperor's Stern Father

"For me, the ancient forbidden land is no longer a dangerous restricted area, but a resource channel that can be continuously developed."

"The miraculous effects of the sacred fruit exceeded my expectations, and the relationship with the Holy Maiden Tianxuan was an unexpected gain from this trip."

The outer edge of the ancient forbidden land is surrounded by vast, desolate mountains.

Three figures walked slowly along the mountain path.

Ye Chen walked in front, with Ye Fan following behind, both wearing smiles.

The little girl sat on Ye Chen's shoulders, clutching a wild fruit in one hand, her cheeks puffed out, humming an unknown tune indistinctly:

"A pair of mandarin ducks play on the water's surface in the rain, just like the bittersweet longing. I don't ask how many people among the three thousand rivers can resent me; through countless reincarnations, I only wish to continue our predestined relationship..."

As Ye Fan gazed at the ever-approaching boundary of the forbidden area, a sense of unease crept into his heart.

"Father, where can we find the old madman?"

My last experience deep within the forbidden area is still vivid in my mind…

The army of white bones, the Holy Maiden of Tianxuan, and the three elders of the Holy Land were all reduced to ashes; each of these events was enough to give cultivators nightmares for three years.

"It's far away, yet right before my eyes." Ye Chen said without turning his head.

"I do not understand."

Ye Fan fell silent.

He hadn't spent much time with his father, but he had already learned a lesson... His father's actions seemed casual, but in fact, every step he took had a profound meaning.

But the deeper meanings often only emerge afterward, and until then, he can only choose to trust.

"uncle."

The little girl suddenly looked up and asked, "Is that crazy grandpa very sad?"

Ye Chen paused slightly and glanced down at her.

The little girl's eyes were clear as water, reflecting the ancient, verdant trees in the mountains and the distant, misty clouds.

How did you know?

Ye Chen put the little girl down and asked with a smile.

"I don't know either." The little girl tilted her head, seemingly trying to organize her thoughts. "I just feel... that grandpa will be very sad."

Ye Chen stared at her for a moment, but did not ask any questions. He simply bent down, picked up the little girl, and let her sit on his shoulders.

The little girl giggled twice, hugged his forehead, and continued munching on the half-eaten wild fruit.

After passing through a dense forest of ancient trees that blocked out the sky, Ye Chen suddenly stopped.

Not far ahead, an elderly man with white hair was squatting beside a blue stone, repeatedly drawing the same pattern on the ground with his finger.

It's as if it's depicting something, or tracing back to a path that has long since vanished.

He was dressed in rags, his white hair was piled up in a mess on his shoulders, and his face was so old that his age was hard to tell. Only his eyes occasionally flashed a chilling light.

"It's him."

Ye Chen put the little girl down from his shoulder and handed her to Ye Fan, then straightened his robes and walked forward alone.

"Ye Chen, a junior disciple of Tianxuan, along with his son Ye Fan and daughter Nannan, pays respects to Senior Tianxuan."

The old madman didn't look up, continuing to trace the patterns on the ground repeatedly.

The fingers were dry and rough, yet they left mysterious trails as they traced across the bluestone. These trails vanished the moment they took shape, as if they had never existed.

"Tianxuan? Tianxuan is gone."

The old madman finally spoke, his voice hoarse, "It's been six thousand years. The Tianxuan you're talking about isn't the Tianxuan I know."

"I understand."

Ye Chen stopped three steps behind him, not moving any closer, and said:

"Six thousand years ago, the Tianxuan Holy Land launched a full-scale attack on the Ancient Abyss, but the entire army was wiped out. You were one of the only survivors of that battle."

"To restore the glory of Tianxuan is our inescapable duty!"

The old madman's fingers paused for a moment, then continued to trace.

"You seem to know a lot. Who told you that?"

"Your Highness."

The old madman's finger suddenly stopped in mid-air, as if he had been nailed down by some force.

After a long while, he slowly turned around, something churning in his cloudy eyes.

"What did you say?"

Ye Chen took out a jade talisman from his sleeve and presented it with both hands.

The jade talisman is crescent-shaped, warm and smooth, and emits a faint glow.

That was a token that the Holy Maiden Tianxuan had personally given him in the desolate forbidden land, which allowed him to have a faint connection with her deep within the forbidden land.

The old madman did not reach out to take it.

He just stared intently at the jade talisman.

My gaze seemed to pierce through six thousand years of time, and I saw a woman in white, as white as snow, standing on the edge of a cliff, her clothes fluttering gently in the wind.

"Her jade talisman."

The old madman's voice suddenly became extremely soft, as if afraid of waking a sleeping dream, "Is she... alright?"

"Her Highness the Holy Maiden has been reduced to the ranks of the barbarians, but her spirit remains undimmed, and her will still endures," Ye Chen said slowly.

"I once stood face to face with her in the forbidden area and told her that Tianxuan still had deceased relatives alive. Although she could not speak, she conveyed this to me through divine sense..."

She longed to see her old friends from Tianxuan, and this junior has come on behalf of Her Highness the Holy Maiden to search for them.

The old madman reached out and took the jade talisman, his withered fingers gently stroking its surface.

He felt the faint, almost imperceptible aura emanating from the jade talisman, and his whole body trembled slightly.

That wasn't fear; it was an emotion that had been suppressed for six thousand years with nowhere to be released.

"She's still here...she's really still here..."

The old madman muttered to himself, then suddenly looked up, his gaze as sharp as a knife fixed on Ye Chen's face.

"What are you doing in the forbidden area? Your cultivation is only at the second level of the Dao Palace realm. What makes you think you can walk into the depths of the forbidden area alive? And what makes you think she should personally hand you the jade talisman?"

The questioning came suddenly and sharply, accompanied by a subtle but palpable pressure...

That was a divine sense lock-on at the Saint level; even a mere wisp of it was enough to terrify an ordinary Dao Palace cultivator.

Ye Chen remained completely still.

He calmly stepped aside, making way for Ye Fan and Xiao Nannan behind him.

"By them."

The old madman's gaze fell on Ye Fan, and he frowned slightly: "Ancient Sacred Body?"

A faint light shone from between his brows, sweeping across Ye Fan's sea of ​​suffering, causing his brows to furrow even deeper.

The fact that the Ancient Sacred Body, a useless body in this world, could not even open the Sea of ​​Bitterness, and yet it was able to walk out of the Ancient Forbidden Land alive, is itself an illogical thing.

But then his gaze turned to the little girl, and he froze.

He couldn't understand that little girl.

A sage's divine sense is sufficient to perceive the origins of most living beings in the world, but when he tried to see through the little girl, his divine sense seemed to fall into an abyss of emptiness.

That abyss was vast and boundless, yet it seemed as if there was nothing there at all.

What alarmed him even more was that when his divine sense probed into the abyss, something seemed to slowly raise its head.

The old madman abruptly withdrew his divine sense, a layer of cold sweat beading on his forehead.

"What...who is she?"

The little girl seemed to sense something, looked up at the old madman, and gave him a bright smile: "Hello, Grandpa!"

The old madman opened his mouth, but said nothing.

His mind, which had been insane for thousands of years, was unusually clear at this moment, and he clearly perceived a fact:

The little girl's background is probably much bigger than he imagined.

"One is an ancient sacred body, the other is an existence that even a saint's divine sense cannot perceive..." The old madman slowly turned his head to look at Ye Chen, his voice low and deep:

"Who exactly are you?"