Ancient temples blurred beneath Fang Han as he soared through the sky.
For two full days he crossed ruin after ruin, passing countless shrines and long-abandoned cities. Only now did he grasp the true vastness of this forgotten empire—a civilization so mighty it once spanned hundreds of thousands of miles… yet vanished overnight, swallowed by dust and legend.
Treasures surely lay hidden in those temples. Wealth, relics, scriptures. But Fang Han didn't descend to plunder. Too many had tried; too many had died. This place devoured greed.
Besides—he was rich enough to rival nations. Petty wealth held no temptation.
Fortunately, his search was not in vain. Gradually, he located the temple marked on the map—the one that hid the Five-Elemental Spirit Roots.
As he flew, a question suddenly tugged at his mind.
"Yan," Fang Han muttered, "why would Meng Shaobai spend a fortune on a Kunpeng egg? What kind of technique requires something so rare? I still have one myself… how should I use it?"
Yan scratched at his skull with a claw, stirring ancient memories.
"A Kunpeng egg is a treasure among treasures. Most would try to hatch it—but raising a Kunpeng takes ten thousand years, oceans of pills, and a fortune in resources. Some refine the egg into medicine. Others draw on its primal life force to cultivate forbidden arts. If my guess is right, Meng Shaobai is doing exactly that. He just survived the Wind-and-Fire Tribulation—he needs overwhelming vitality to forge his Heaven-and-Earth Dharma Body."
Yan frowned, trying to recall more.
"You don't lack life force," he continued. "What you lack is the Five-Elemental essence. Still… there is one method to use your Kunpeng egg—a method so vile, so domineering, so inhuman that even the demon gods feared it."
Yan lowered his voice.
"The Demon Womb Parasite Sutra. You fuse yourself into the egg's womb, devour its essence, steal the Kunpeng's potential, and transform—neither fully human nor fully Kunpeng. Such a body can contain limitless vitality, cultivate endless divine abilities. A Kunpeng devours seas and mountains; its capacity for energy dwarfs mortals by a thousandfold."
Fang Han fell silent.
"A technique that sinister… do you know it?"
"I do not," Yan admitted. "But Emperor Yellow Springs did. Some ancient immortal-devils might know it still, but none in this age. If you reach the Longevity Realm and restore my full strength, we can open the Yellow Springs Vault. There lie the Emperor's lost scriptures—ninety-nine divine abilities of the ancient demonic path."
Yan's tone grew reverent.
"In those days, Emperor Yellow Springs gathered the eggs and embryonic wombs of the rarest mythical beasts—Qilin, Xuanwu, Phoenix, Heavenly Dragon, Vermilion Bird, Golden Crow, Kun, Sky Centipede, Divine Whale… hundreds in all. He arranged them into a Primordial Chaos Womb Array, fusing all their life signatures. That was how he reached the Tenth Layer of Longevity… and tore open the Gate of Immortality."
Fang Han, Blood-Night King, and Xingchan listened in stunned silence. Baby Xingyun stared with shining eyes, as if hearing the greatest fairy tale of his life.
"Eh? Why did you stop?" Xingyun cried. "More! Tell more! Yan, once we get back to my sect, I'll bring you to our Nine-Yang Pool. You'll get so strong—just tell me stories!"
"If I drink your Nine-Yang Pool dry, your elders will hunt me to extinction. Your father won't hold his position for a single day," Yan snorted.
Fang Han exhaled slowly.
"That Demon Womb technique… I've never heard of anything like it. If I truly parasitized a Kunpeng egg, wouldn't my lifespan increase by thousands of years? Wouldn't I rival a Longevity master?"
"Impossible," Yan said at once. "Without breaking into the Longevity Realm, no being can surpass ten thousand years. Even if you devour elixirs, master forbidden arts, reach the Tenth Layer of Divine Abilities—your life will drain away before hitting that limit. The Immortal Realm itself enforces this law."
Xingyun nodded as if enlightened.
"So that's why mortal emperors call themselves 'Ten-Thousand-Years'… but cultivators never do."
"Exactly," Yan said. "The first layer of Longevity is Wan-Shou, the 'Ten-Thousand-Life' Realm—breaking the limit. The second is Undying, where one reshapes matter, bends time and space, manifests worlds from emptiness… feats we cannot even dream of. If I recover my full power, I'd only reach the second layer."
Fang Han absorbed every word. His own lifespan, bolstered by Nine-Orifice Golden Pill, barely exceeded two thousand years. In the blink of a cultivator's life, that could vanish.
If he were still trapped in the Taiyuan Immortal Mansion… he'd be bones by now.
"Look. We're here."
A colossal temple emerged ahead—grand enough to rival the Taiyuan Immortal Mansion itself. Statues of ancient guardians surrounded it, towering like mountains, radiating the aura of forgotten kings.
This was the place—the temple said to contain the Five-Elemental Spirit Roots.
Fang Han bowed outside, offering formal respect. Only then did he turn into a streak of blue light and enter the main hall.
The interior shocked him. Its layout resembled the Taiyuan Immortal Mansion—yet simpler. No countless portals, no endless corridors. Just five doors deep within the hall, each glowing a distinct elemental hue:
Black—Water
Red—Fire
Azure—Wood
Yellow—Earth
White-Gold—Metal
They looked close… yet the air rippled strangely. Space folded here—one step could stretch into a thousand.
It didn't matter. He needed only one thing: the Spirit Roots.
Once he obtained them, he could perfect the Five-Emperor Grand Devil Arts, step into the Sixth Layer—Unity. His fifty-five divine abilities would merge into one. His strength would multiply tenfold.
He inhaled sharply and leaped forward—
BOOM!
The world spun. Darkness swallowed him whole. Then light exploded.
He was no longer in a temple.
A barren wasteland stretched endlessly beneath an alien sky. Stars flickered overhead—far larger and colder than those of the Xuanhuang World.
"The temple was… a spatial passage?" Fang Han scanned the heavens. The doorway he came through had vanished entirely.
A sense of dread crawled up his spine.
His gaze caught something—
A lone mountain in the distance, carved smooth as if sliced by a god's blade. Enormous blood-red characters dripped down its cliff face:
"Land of the Five Elements! Seals the Ancient Demon!
PERIL! PERIL! PERIL! PERIL! PERIL! PERIL! PERIL!"
Seven characters for "danger."
Each more forceful than the last.
Each radiating a killing intent that pricked the skin.
Fang Han felt his breath tighten.
"What is this place? Yan… are we still in the Xuanhuang World?"
Yan's voice was grim.
"No. This is a remote star realm. And I sense no spatial passage leading home. Unless a miracle occurs… we're trapped. And I have no memory of this place—not even Emperor Yellow Springs' records mention it."
Fang Han clenched his fists.
"Then we find the Five-Elemental essence. A place like this must be overflowing with it."
He vaulted over the mountain, skimming low over the cracked earth, searching for traces of elemental qi.
But—
Far across the ground…
A massive patch of earth opened an eye.
A single titanic eye—full of ancient malice—locked directly onto Fang Han.
Its pupils burned with hunger.
And killing intent.