Chapter 39: Leaps and Bounds

After Fang Yu's group ate the fruits and a few other things, they set out to find a way down the mountain, quickly settling on a direction, convinced that following it would most likely lead them to a place where people lived.

Without wasting much time, the group headed down along the mountain's slope, then entered the forest and pressed forward cautiously.

But they walked for the better part of a full day without seeing so much as a single field mouse, let alone any large beast, and not a single flying bird either.

"That's a good thing, better than running into some divine beast."

Pang Bo quipped.

The forest's vegetation was lush and green, with plenty of wild fruits, which temporarily eased their food problem. Of course, neither Fang Yu nor Ye Fan nor Pang Bo was actually hungry at all — instead, they were brimming with energy, their strength ever increasing.

They crossed mountain after mountain, and it seemed they were about to break out at any moment, when suddenly one girl, a little embarrassed, spoke to another: "I think my body feels kind of hot."

"I feel the same way too."

At that moment, many of them sensed something was wrong — their skin had turned a terrifying red, as if blood were about to drip from it. Every one of them felt a searing heat, as though a fire were burning inside their bodies.

"It hurts so much, I can't take it!"

One girl dropped to her knees, letting out an utterly wretched cry of agony, as if her flesh and blood were about to dry up. She couldn't control herself at all, tears and snot streaming down her face as she tossed and turned.

Then the second, then the third also couldn't bear it, their whole bodies blood-red, collapsing to the ground and rolling about in agony.

"What on earth is going on? I'm in agony too."

"It's unbearable — why won't you let me die!"

"Oh heavens, what on earth has happened? We've already pushed through so many hardships and dangers — why must we suffer something like this now?"

One after another, their bodies became wrapped in a layer of blood qi, as if blood-colored flames were burning within them. They thrashed violently, screaming in agony.

Fang Yu's expression remained calm. Of course he felt the pain too, but he immediately sat cross-legged and began to refine the residual divine medicine within his body, fighting against that corrosive force — faring far better than the others.

In this continuous struggle, his strength surged at a tremendous pace, and his spirit soared along with it.

Fifteen thousand jin of tremendous force.

Seventeen thousand jin of tremendous force.

Nineteen thousand jin of tremendous force.

Twenty thousand jin!

Time passed. A few hours later, Fang Yu's strength had already risen to twenty thousand jin — the force of four Mysterious Yellow Stallions.

His spirit was now utterly full, his whole body comfortable and at ease, brimming with inexhaustible energy. Even something like a saber-toothed tiger would only take a single punch from him to kill.

Twenty thousand jin of tremendous force contained in a single hand — this was a terrifying power.

"Ah!"

Just then, a scream rang out from not far away, jolting Ye Fan and Pang Bo awake from their faint.

The two scrambled to their feet, and when they reached their classmates, the expressions on their faces were somewhat incredulous.

"Who on earth are these doddering old grandpas and grandmas? Could they really be our classmates?"

What they saw gave them quite a fright.

A dozen-odd bodies lay sprawled across the ground in every direction. At a glance, every one of them had wrinkled, impossibly aged skin and white hair — saying they were in their seventies or eighties would not be an exaggeration.

But the clothes they wore were the same as before, so clearly they really were Ye Fan and Pang Bo's classmates.

"They… they can't be Zhou Yi, Wang Ziwen, Li Xiaoman, can they?!"

In the blink of an eye, youth had aged away. The two felt their mouths go dry, but at least these people were all still breathing — their lives were not in danger.

"Huh?"

Pang Bo spotted Liu Yiyi, who had fainted. This classmate's looks had not changed at all — she was still as young and fresh as ever.

This delighted Ye Fan and Pang Bo beyond measure. They had been on good terms with Liu Yiyi since their school days, and naturally did not wish anything bad to befall her.

Looking further ahead, they saw another classmate they were on good terms with, Zhang Ziling, who had taken on the appearance of a man in his forties.

Although it looked as if a stretch of years had been shaved away, he had not aged as terribly as Zhou Yi and the others — going from a handsome young man to a middle-aged uncle.

That wasn't too bad either.

"What's going on?"

Before long, someone came to and, seeing their own aged skin, nearly fainted dead away. Then wailing cries rose one after another.

To wither before one's time, to see the bloom of youth turn to a hoary head — this was simply the most tragic thing in the world. A group of men and women in their twenties woke up to find themselves already white-haired and wrinkled; this was even more agonizing for them than being killed.

"Why have I become like this?"

Zhou Yi raised a trembling hand, looked at his wrinkled skin and his head full of white hair, and let out an utterly aged voice as he roared: "Why on earth?!"

Beside him, others were shivering, their eyes clouded, staring at their own hands in utter disbelief.

As for Li Xiaoman, she was practically desperate enough to kill herself in agony. Looks were her very lifeblood — a particularly beautiful woman cares about her appearance all the more.

At this moment, looking at her once-fair skin losing its luster, becoming coarse and aged, was even more unbearable for her than being killed.

Seeing Ye Fan approach, she lowered her head even further, hiding her face, and began to cry: "Don't come over, don't come over."

The after-effect of preferring chocolate over the divine medicine had kicked in — the price was a steep one.

"Why, why do you two still look the same as before?"

Zhou Yi finally noticed something was off. He looked toward Ye Fan, Pang Bo, and Fang Yu, who was cultivating not far away, his cloudy eyes fixing on them with a sharp, piercing gleam.

"This isn't our doing. If we could pull off something like this, we'd just become gods on the spot — how would we still be mortals?"

Pang Bo spread his hands.

"How can we get our looks back? How exactly did you two do it? Can you tell us?"

One girl after another sobbed uncontrollably, and when they looked at Fang Yu's skin, fine as satin, their pain only deepened.

In response, Ye Fan could only offer comfort — those thirteen fruits had all been distributed, and their own share had already been eaten; there was nothing left over.

Better to say nothing than to give them hope only to dash it.

Many of the men and women were in despair, but the immediate priority was still to get out of there.

Ye Fan, Pang Bo, Liu Yiyi and the others supported their aged classmates as they pressed forward, preparing to leave this place that had brought them such suffering.

Fang Yu, on the other hand, felt no pain at all. Walking out of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land was thanks to Ye Fan's good fortune; next time he wanted to enter and exit the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land so easily, it would likely be difficult.

Still, he wasn't a greedy person, since he also knew the origins of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land and didn't want to go there just to throw his life away.

Just after Fang Yu and his group walked out of the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, a streak of light suddenly appeared on the horizon, seeming to slice across the sky like a rainbow, standing out vividly against the dim sky.

"That is…"

"There's actually someone inside?"

"Fairy, save us!"

Whoosh.

That rainbow light suddenly changed direction, flying toward Fang Yu's side in an instant, like a rainbow spanning the horizon, arriving in the blink of an eye.

A woman had arrived.