The tiny crystal pen hovered in the air. Even after being pushed back by Fang Han's Five-Emperor Canopy, it didn't pause—another stroke came slicing through the void. In an instant, boundless essence surged from countless hidden dimensions, gathering into a single razor-sharp arc.
This stroke carried one word—Death.
The moment Fang Han saw that character, he felt as though he were witnessing his own body shatter into pieces. It was as if the supreme sovereign of life and death had lifted a pen and decreed his end. No living thing could escape the crushing weight of that single stroke.
I can't defend against this… I can only gamble everything!
In that heartbeat, Fang Han's spirit, qi, and will fused with unprecedented clarity. His body—honed through countless temperings and nourished by endless spiritual medicines—burst with surging vitality. All of it condensed into a single drop of blood, which he spat onto his life talisman.
His scattered runes snapped back into formation. Essence gathered madly, and deep within the array, the Five-Emperor Canopy expanded like an inflating divine umbrella, rising once more to confront the coming stroke.
Boom. BOOM.
The "Death" stroke descended. Fang Han felt as though thousands of mountains were crashing down on him—no, thousands of worlds colliding into his body. Endless essence ruptured. The talisman above his head cracked apart again.
Even the core Five-Emperor Canopy trembled violently, fissures spreading through the five elemental forces.
Fang Han understood: it wasn't that he was weak. The opponent was simply too terrifying. This miniature crystal pen had an unimaginable origin. He'd come underground seeking treasure—only to discover that the treasure was trying to kill him. A cosmic joke.
"Kill!"
The Heaven-Shrouding Demon Hand, the Yellow Springs Diagram, the Blood Night King, even the Sun-Moon-Five-Star Bracelet—all his treasures burst forth, surrounding him and trying to block the crystal pen.
A cold thought exploded from the pen: "Scram."
Bang. Bang. Bang—
Every treasure was blasted away like dead leaves in a storm. The pen's aura was emperor-level—regal, absolute, a sovereign among artifacts. No other treasure could compare.
Then came another stroke—its power far beyond the previous two. This time, it intended to erase Fang Han completely.
For the first time in his life, Fang Han stood on the edge of true, inescapable death. Yet under that crushing pressure, his mind turned razor calm. Every dormant potential in his body erupted. Another surge of blood sprayed from his mouth, merging again with his life talisman.
"I was born extraordinary—feet on the earth, hands covering the heavens!
Five Elements fuse, power surges!
Divine seed—form the Golden Core!"
With his roar, Fang Han's body shot into the talisman, merging with it. As the third stroke descended, celestial tones rang out. Blossoms of light drifted through the underground abyss, and a faint golden core appeared—illusory, but radiant—its glow filling the cavern five thousand meters below.
Earth shook. Rock melted into pure earth essence, streaming into the phantom core, trying to solidify it into a true Golden Core.
Crash!
The phantom core collided with the stroke.
The core shattered instantly, collapsing back into the life talisman.
But the third stroke—was stopped.
"Y-you advanced to the seventh level, Golden Core realm?" Pure Fox gasped.
"No!" Yan snapped. "It's only a false core. A half-step into the Golden Core, a peak Unity Realm. And it's all because of you! If you hadn't dragged us down here, we wouldn't have encountered this nightmare treasure!"
The crystal pen, seeing the third stroke blocked, lifted again for a fourth—and final—stroke.
This one Fang Han truly could not withstand.
His earlier breakthrough had only forged a shadow of a Golden Core. Illusory, fleeting—its power heightened but still far from real. His talisman housed fifty-five divine abilities; the essence required for a true Golden Core was a thousand times that of ordinary cultivators. It could not be completed so easily.
But even a phantom core was an immense breakthrough, shaving years off his cultivation path.
Still, if the fourth stroke landed, all his progress would be meaningless.
And then—
Just as the fourth arc descended, Yan snatched the rune from Pure Fox's hand—the talisman depicting a pen—and hurled it forward.
The rune exploded with light, intercepting the stroke.
Shua!
The killing arc vanished instantly.
The rune was sucked into the crystal pen's shaft.
A deep, ancient voice rumbled from within:
"So that's how it is. I wondered how two insignificant cultivators found me. You carried one of my thirteen Life-and-Death Runes. Very well—I won't kill you. But do not disturb my slumber again. You, a mere Unity Realm ant, managed to withstand three strokes of mine. Consider yourself lucky. Take this warning: if you return, I will erase you."
The pen trembled, then dove deeper into the earth—and vanished.
The cavern fell silent.
Pure Fox stared, stunned. "What… what kind of artifact was that?"
Fang Han still hadn't recovered his breath. "Terrifying…"
"If I'm not mistaken," Yan said, voice trembling, "that was the Human Emperor Pen, one of the Three Sovereign Treasures. Once an immortal artifact—crippled in ancient wars, yet still an ultimate dao artifact. A single stroke can kill any cultivator below the undying realm. The voice you heard was its artifact spirit."
Fang Han shivered.
Even at his peak, Yan would not be its match.
"If I could subdue it…" Fang Han whispered. "Even the Taoyuan Immortal Mansion wouldn't be beyond reach."
But that dream was far away.
For now—survival.
"Let's go."
Fang Han wrapped Pure Fox in his energy and blasted upward. It took an hour before they reached the surface.
Pure Fox exhaled shakily. "What was that artifact? Its power surpassed even the sacred treasure of my fox clan. Fang Han… we found nothing, and I lost my rune. Let's call it even. I'll be leaving now."
"Leaving?" Fang Han's expression hardened. "I can't risk you spreading word of what we saw. I won't have experts swarming here. You're not going anywhere."
"You—you dare!? Are you still a righteous cultivator? You're no different from those lecherous disciples from before!"
"Hmph. I don't need you as a concubine or a cauldron. I simply can't allow you to leak this secret. Because of you, I almost died today. If you hate me—so what? Will it make me lose a hair?"