A Great Artifact

With the protection of the Quasi-Emperor forbidden artifact, Lu Zhou ventured deeper into the Fire Domain.

He passed through the fourth layer, a region of black fire. The black flames were like netherfire.

He did not stop and continued onward.

Until he reached the fifth layer of the Fire Domain, the region of golden fire.

He took out the Qiankun Pearl and cast it into the flames to temper it. Blazing golden fire enveloped the Qiankun Pearl.

Before this, within the Qiankun Heaven and Earth, the area where Nannan lived had already been shrouded by a special domain, ensuring that nothing within it would be damaged.

This was a domain power that the Qiankun Pearl had possessed from the moment it formed its own heaven and earth. It carried the abilities to bind, suppress, imprison, and transform into a space of its own.

As long as the Qiankun Pearl was not completely destroyed, this power would remain inexhaustible within the Qiankun Heaven and Earth.

Lu Zhou called this power Qiankun Power. He had once used it to imprison the Empress Sacred Spring in midair so that the vital essence within the spring would not dissipate.

Through his connection with the Qiankun Pearl, Lu Zhou carefully sensed it, only to find that the golden flames had no effect on the Qiankun Pearl at all.

Seeing this, he held the Bronze Buddha Statue and continued deeper into the Fire Domain. After traveling several li, he saw wisps of purple mist drifting ahead.

This was the sixth layer of the Fire Domain, known as Purple Qi Coming from the East.

Upon reaching this place, Lu Zhou finally sensed a reaction from the Qiankun Pearl.

The Qiankun Pearl's surface had always looked dull and gray. After being tempered by the purple mist for some time, a faint trace of purple had already stained that ashen hue.

The change was extremely subtle. If the Qiankun Pearl had not been completely bound to Lu Zhou, as though it were part of his own body, he would never have noticed it.

"Still not enough."

He shook his head and muttered to himself.

Although Purple Qi Coming from the East could already help him refine the Qiankun Pearl, the efficiency was far too slow.

He could not help raising his head to look deeper into the Fire Domain.

"I have the Quasi-Emperor forbidden artifact protecting me. I can use stronger flames to save time."

Soon after, Lu Zhou brought the Qiankun Pearl with him and, holding the Bronze Buddha Statue, continued deeper into the Fire Domain.

Throughout the process, the Qiankun Pearl was continuously tempered by the purple mist.

Before long, Lu Zhou arrived in an area filled with five-colored cloud flames.

This was the seventh layer of the Fire Domain.

Even with the Quasi-Emperor forbidden artifact protecting him, the five-colored cloud flames could not harm him. However, Lu Zhou did not intend to go any farther.

Because he discovered that the Qiankun Pearl's dull gray surface was rapidly transforming into five colors.

Clearly, this place was already suitable enough for refining his Qiankun Pearl.

At once, he sat cross-legged on the ground and mobilized the Divine Power within him, pouring it toward the Qiankun Pearl. The nine Emperor characters from the Dao Sutra were inscribed again and again upon the Qiankun Pearl's surface.

He was already thoroughly familiar with this.

Since he began cultivating, he had set aside time every day to refine the Qiankun Pearl this way, hoping to imprint those nine Emperor characters upon it and help the Qiankun Pearl grow stronger.

Unfortunately, until arriving at the Fire Domain, he had never succeeded in permanently imprinting those nine characters upon the Qiankun Pearl.

At most, after enough attempts, he could make them manifest on the Qiankun Pearl's surface for a time.

This time, when Lu Zhou once more imprinted the nine Emperor characters from the Dao Sutra onto the Qiankun Pearl, he immediately noticed the difference.

The nine Emperor characters bloomed with divine radiance upon the Qiankun Pearl's surface, shining brilliantly as they connected into profound and intricate patterns that Lu Zhou could not understand. They seemed to become eternal, enveloping the Qiankun Pearl.

Those patterns began autonomously drawing in the five-colored cloud flames of the Fire Domain, which surged toward them madly.

Lu Zhou heard the sound of hammering iron in his ears—clang, clang, clang.

The sound continued for a full half month before gradually falling silent.

Throughout that half month, Lu Zhou kept watch over the situation within the Qiankun Heaven and Earth inside the pearl.

He saw only that the sky within the Qiankun Heaven and Earth was filled with five-colored radiance, like auroras, breathtakingly brilliant every moment.

Other than that, there were no further changes.

When the hammering finally stopped, the once dull gray Qiankun Pearl had completely settled into five colors.

It was smooth and translucent, like a luminous pearl in the heavens. As its five-colored radiance flowed, Dao and principles evolved within it, faintly giving Lu Zhou the feeling of the beginning of heaven and earth, of the Dao following nature.

Lu Zhou poured Divine Power into it. The nine Emperor characters flickered indistinctly across its surface as Dao patterns intertwined. It burst forth with dazzling divine light, as though it could transform into a vast firmament. Within that firmament, a hazy great world could be seen rising and falling.

This was the manifestation of its Dao, and it could be wielded to suppress enemies.

Lu Zhou raised his hand and drew the Qiankun Pearl into his palm.

The Qiankun Pearl was still light as nothing, but Lu Zhou knew that was only because it belonged to him. If he sent out the Qiankun Pearl with Divine Power now, it could easily smash apart a mountain.

Only now could this Qiankun Pearl be said to have taken on some of the bearing of a "great artifact."

Its potential for growth had greatly increased.

After playing with the Qiankun Pearl for a while, Lu Zhou cast it back into the five-colored cloud flames for further refinement.

With a thought from him, the Qiankun Pearl seemed to transform into a black hole, continuously drawing strands of five-colored cloud flames into the Qiankun Heaven and Earth within it.

Lu Zhou intended to refine the Qiankun Pearl more thoroughly, inside and out.

The five-colored cloud flames burned within the Qiankun Heaven and Earth, causing the temperature throughout it to surge sharply and transforming it into a sea of fire flowing with five-colored clouds.

Within that sea of fire was a patch of pure land. It was the place protected by Qiankun Power, where Little Nannan's home stood.

Lu Zhou also entered the Qiankun Heaven and Earth. In his mind echoed the several hundred characters of scripture he had once obtained from the Bronze Coffin.

Once again, he mobilized the Divine Power and Divine Sense within him, intending to imitate the scripture and imprint each character that echoed in his mind into the void.

Unfortunately, just as before, those scripture characters still could not manifest in the world. Arcs of lightning flashed and erased them.

Lu Zhou refused to give up, continuing to imprint them over and over.

The scripture characters vanished again and again.

They remained locked in this stalemate for a full month, yet Lu Zhou still could not successfully imprint that scripture within the Qiankun Pearl.

Just as he was preparing to give up, things suddenly took a turn.

One day, while imprinting that scripture beneath the World Tree, he suddenly discovered that the scripture was vanishing much more slowly.

Lu Zhou was overjoyed, and before long, he seemed to realize something.

Using the Divine Power within him as a brush and his Divine Sense as ink, he began trying to imprint those several hundred characters of scripture onto the trunk of the World Tree.

In the end, when he had finished imprinting the entire scripture, none of the characters dissipated.

They were imprinted upon the World Tree's trunk. Though they left behind only the faintest of patterns, they had indeed manifested completely in the world.

The moment Lu Zhou caused the entire scripture to manifest within the Qiankun Heaven and Earth, the whole realm suddenly shuddered.

Then Lu Zhou witnessed an incomparably shocking sight.

The World Tree, originally only one chi tall, suddenly shot up to three zhang. The Chaos Mist that fell as its branches and leaves swayed was like the Milky Way hanging upside down from the nine heavens.

The scene was too vast and majestic, as though the heavens were collapsing, carrying boundless terror.

Fortunately, perhaps because of the system, or perhaps because they had been produced by the World Tree bound to Lu Zhou, the Chaos Mist still could not harm him.

Before long, the entire Qiankun Heaven and Earth was filled with Chaos Mist, utterly hazy.

Then chaos raged. The Qiankun Heaven and Earth reenacted earth, wind, water, and fire, while thunderbolts raged within the chaos.

The scene resembled the World Creation of myth and legend.

This sight continued for more than ten days before finally stopping.

Once everything had calmed down, Lu Zhou discovered that the Qiankun Heaven and Earth had expanded even further.

Now, in every direction—east, west, south, north, above, and below—it stretched for several thousand li, even larger than the entire Yan Kingdom!