The "Pure-Fox Demon Girl" was treacherous to the extreme—she had actually handed Fang Han a divine thunder bomb disguised as a top-tier treasure. If he hadn't sensed the danger, his body would've been blown apart on the spot, leaving nothing but drifting ash.
Even though he had already reached the Sixth Layer of Divine Abilities—the Return-to-One Realm—if his physical body collapsed, death would be instant. He didn't yet possess the Ninth Layer's "Heaven-and-Earth Dharma Form," which allowed one to seize a new body. Of course, relying on that wasn't necessary for him now. His body had already been tempered to an unbelievable degree—five elements perfected, the God-Sealing Technique cultivated, organs fortified, thunder-bone relics fused, and Yin-Yang Longevity Pills consumed. He was practically forged into living steel. Frankly, even the Five Prison King Cauldron didn't have a structure this durable. He could withstand three hundred times amplified sonic vibrations without suffering a crack.
With such a body, ordinary divine thunder could explode against him all day and he'd barely feel a tickle.
But this girl's divine thunder had been refined by a demon god—and that was another matter entirely. He couldn't guarantee surviving a direct blast, and he wasn't about to gamble.
Seeing her employ the same sort of tricks she'd used against the Ghost Emperor made Fang Han almost laugh. Schemes? Tricks? I'm the ancestor of trickery. Whose dirty little plots could possibly escape my eyes?
Swish!
The demon girl's face turned pitch-black as she realized she'd been exposed. She leapt backward, intending to flee—but Fang Han merely flicked his hand. A ripple of power sealed the entire area. No matter how she flew, she crashed against invisible walls.
"Save your strength. Even your backer—the Demon God—already lost a hand to me. What tricks do you think you have left? If you're thinking of playing games again, I'll run out of patience. And trust me, that'll be bad news for you."
Fang Han smiled slightly. What really interested him was the "Demon-Sealing Ridge" she'd mentioned. She was willing to kill a Starry Sky Gate true disciple to keep this secret. Yet when Fang Han had probed thousands of feet deep with the Yellow Emperor's Earth-Sovereign Dao, he hadn't sensed anything unusual. Doubt crept in.
That Dao—supreme among all earth-attribute arts—could see through the land as if daylight. It never failed.
"You're Fang Han! The one who was locked inside the Taiyuan Immortal Mansion and came out alive? The one who—while only at the Fifth Layer—defeated Wan Luo? Killed the Ghost Emperor? Slaughtered the Moon-Piercing Thieves and Star-Slayers? Mastered fifty-five divine abilities and forged a talisman whose activation summons the horn-blowing and drum-beating celestial visions?"
The Pure-Fox Demon Girl spun around, stunned.
Fang Han thought, So even the demonic underworld knows my deeds now. His name had clearly spread. With the speed information traveled in the cultivation world, he wouldn't be surprised if certain well-informed figures across the entire World of Xuanhuang were discussing him. This girl was clearly sharp—of course she'd know.
And if the events of him killing two Taiyi Sect Golden Core elders ever leaked—Zhao Xuanyi and Song Weiyi—the uproar would be even greater.
"For someone so powerful, how do you not know about the Demon-Sealing Ridge?" she shot back. "This is an ancient sealing ground of a Great Saint. Countless Sky Demons were imprisoned here, and he left behind a terrifying Dao Artifact as well as precious pills. Among them: Nirvana Pills, top-tier heavenly-grade elixirs. They can allow a cultivator to undergo rebirth, greatly increasing the chance of breaking through one's current realm.
For example—it could help someone at the Sixth Layer, like you, ascend toward the Golden Core realm. And someone at the Tenth Layer, Reverse-Fate Realm, might even break into the Longevity Secret Realm! The lower the realm, the higher the success rate."
"Nirvana Pills?" Fang Han's mind jolted.
He had learned much about divine pills by now, and the legendary Nirvana Pills were indeed recorded in The Myriad Worlds Compendium. A miraculous elixir—heaven-grade absolute—refinable only by a Longevity-Realm expert of extremely high skill. Even the Yuhua Sect's Supreme Headmaster, Feng Baiyu, couldn't refine it.
Such pills could shatter bottlenecks. But their method of creation had long been lost. They existed only in myths.
If he obtained one—not to mention instantly forming a Golden Core—his body and foundation would surge so close to Golden Core level it would be frightening.
And if the Nebula Baby took one… it would absolutely break into the Fifth Layer.
But that giant baby was still snoring away, utterly ignoring everything.
As for the "Seventh Senior Brother" who'd reached Golden Core in just a hundred years—yes, a genius. But at the moment, irrelevant.
Fang Han still didn't fully believe this cunning fox demoness.
"So talk. What exactly is this ridge? I saw nothing unusual. You claim you can? If I catch you lying, you know my methods."
Seeing Fang Han's cold stare, the demon girl shivered—but Fang Han knew it was fake. She wasn't afraid; she was performing. He didn't expose her. But he made note of it. Those who played games with him rarely had good endings.
"The Demon-Sealing Ridge lies five thousand fathoms beneath us, inside a hidden spatial fracture," she said, rising into the air. "You can't see anything from the surface unless you understand geomantic veins."
Fang Han floated up with her. From above, the mounds of yellow earth below did form a pattern—like turtle shells, like coiled serpents. Dry and barren, yet vaguely possessing the aura of a geomantic treasure land.
He snorted. "The Xuanhuang World is full of geomantic lands. This little place? Hardly impressive. And I've never even heard of this so-called Demon-Sealing Ridge."
"The world is millions of years old," she countered. "Countless ancient relics are buried in dust. I found this one in an old mortal-world book. And that book contained a spirit talisman guiding the location of the hidden vault. I am certain there's a treasure vault below—so I came. But I can't burrow through the earth, nor could I retrieve anything within. You're lucky to share this with me."
She retrieved an old book and a talisman from her pouch.
Fang Han waved his hand, and both items flew to him. The book unfurled midair, showing a tale of a Great Saint sealing thirty million Sky Demons beneath a mountain range by writing divine runes with righteous qi—thus creating the Demon-Sealing Ridge.
Folk legend. The world was full of such stories.
But the talisman—that was different.
No demonic aura. No daoist aura. No magical corruption. Instead—it radiated the dignity of a mortal scholar's righteous spirit. The breath of teaching, of civilization, of writing words that illuminate the world.
Something neither immortals nor demons could easily forge.
A true relic of the ancient world—yet not offensive in nature. More akin to a "passage" talisman.
"Hmph. So there is something real here. You say the vault is five thousand fathoms underground? Hardly anyone could reach that. Divine Ability cultivators? Impossible. Even Longevity experts would need bodies of pure qi to seep through. But I happen to cultivate a certain art… one that lets me swim through earth like water. If there's nothing down there—I'll bury you alive."
Fang Han laughed. His life-talisman flared above his head, releasing a beam of golden-yellow light.
Crackle—
The soil beneath them rippled like water. With a gesture, he wrapped the demon girl in his energy and dove straight into the earth.
In a blink, they vanished.
Behind them, the soil solidified again, as if nothing had ever happened.
This was the pinnacle power of the Yellow Emperor's Earth-Sovereign Dao.
It transformed earth and stone into pure earth-essence, allowing one to move through the ground like a fish through the sea.
Even other earth-attribute arts couldn't compare.
"So powerful…! Truly worthy of being a Five-Empires Demon-God Divine Ability. A supreme demonic art…" the Pure-Fox Demon Girl whispered, astonished, as she found herself swimming effortlessly through layers of rock behind Fang Han.