Xuanwei froze in place. His immortal qi body did not even dare ripple, afraid of alerting the nest's owner.
He cautiously "looked" around. The nest was incomparably enormous, woven from countless thick azure vines radiating dense Wood Element spiritual light and life force, like a living palace. Deep within the nest, several giant jade eggs gave faint pulses, each one stirring the vast surrounding Wood Element Spiritual Qi like tides and emanating heart-pounding pressure.
What... what kind of Primordial World beast's nursery had he stumbled into?! Xuanwei's heart went cold. The residual aura from the nest alone made his still-injured little body feel suffocated. The nest's owner was absolutely far beyond a Mysterious Immortal—perhaps a Golden Immortal or something even greater!
He instinctively wanted to use the Evasion Talisman again to flee, only to discover in despair that the space here seemed to be imprisoned by some powerful force field. The Evasion Talisman did not react at all!
"I'm screwed..." Xuanwei wanted to cry. He had just escaped the wolf's den only to enter the tiger's lair—and this one came with an advanced security system!
Yet the resonance from the Chaos Bead fragment deep in his sea of consciousness grew stronger and stronger, pointing directly toward the deepest part of the nest. Beneath those giant eggs was a clump of soil wrapped in countless roots, emitting a hazy chaotic aura! The strange seed that had just fused into his body also conveyed longing and intimacy, pointing toward the same place!
"Chaos Soil?! Chaos Soil containing Jianmu's origin?!" A term abruptly surfaced in Xuanwei's mind. He had once seen a few scattered mentions of it in miscellaneous books within the Scripture Pavilion. Legend had it that the soil which had nurtured the Innate Spiritual Root Jianmu when chaos first opened contained both the origins of chaos and Wood Element. It was one of the most supreme spiritual soils in heaven and earth!
Could this nest have been built by some Primordial Remnant Species connected to Jianmu? Had it gathered Chaos Soil to hatch its offspring?
The thought made Xuanwei's scalp tingle even more. Nothing connected to Jianmu was easy to provoke!
He tried to carefully extend a faint wisp of immortal qi containing the aura of that strange seed toward the clump of Chaos Soil.
A miracle happened!
The nest's vines, which had originally radiated rejection and danger, actually loosened slightly upon touching that wisp of immortal qi bearing an aura from the same origin. Their rejection weakened! The strange seed within him became even more excited, frantically absorbing the free Wood Element essence in the air and the faint aura emitted by the Chaos Soil.
[High-concentration Jianmu origin and chaotic aura environment detected! "Unknown Innate Spiritual Root Seed (Mutated)" activity greatly increased! Growth accelerated!] [Chaos Bead absorbs Jianmu origin and Chaos Soil Dao Rhyme. Repair progress slightly increased! Spatial stability increased!] [Notice: The current environment is extremely beneficial for the host's injury recovery, but is also exceedingly dangerous! It is recommended that energy be absorbed as quickly as possible and an escape method found before the nest's owner returns.]
The system's analysis calmed Xuanwei somewhat. Danger and opportunity went hand in hand! This place was practically a healing sanctuary tailor-made for him! Moreover, both the Chaos Bead and the seed could benefit from it!
He stopped hesitating and immediately circulated the Innate Immortal Qi Origin Method and the body-tempering section of the Chaos Heaven-Opening Art at full force, crazily absorbing the surrounding Wood Element Spiritual Qi, dense to the extreme, along with the Dao Rhyme emitted by the Chaos Soil. At the same time, he guided the strange seed to take root within his immortal qi origin—for now—and absorb this tremendous opportunity alongside him.
His energy level began recovering at an unprecedented speed! 10%... 15%... 20%! His immortal qi body became visibly more solid and brilliant. The Wutu Essence and Wood Element Vitality within it merged perfectly, and even the dim Chaos Color radiance brightened slightly. The injuries deep within his origin rapidly healed beneath the nourishment of that immense vitality!
[Energy level has broken through 25%! Cultivation restored to the peak of Earth Immortal!] [The host's foundation has been nourished by Jianmu origin and Chaos Soil Dao Rhyme. Potential slightly increased!] ["Unknown Innate Spiritual Root Seed" has initially sprouted, returning a large amount of pure vitality and accelerating host recovery!] [Chaos Bead (Fragment) repair progress has reached 1%! New function unlocked: Primary Space Marking (can temporarily mark previously visited small-area spatial coordinates for precise teleportation next time; cooldown is relatively long).]
Amazing! It felt incredible! Xuanwei felt like a dried-up sponge thrown into the ocean, every "cell" in him cheering with delight! At this rate, he would fully recover in less than a day and might even break into the Heavenly Immortal realm!
However, good times did not last.
Just as he immersed himself in the thrill of his rapidly growing strength, a vast, ancient, terrifying will filled with authority and anger suddenly awakened from the depths of the sea like a primordial divine mountain and crashed down upon the nest!
The nest's owner had returned!
Xuanwei was scared out of his wits. He instantly stopped all cultivation and pushed [Deep Immortal Seclusion] to an unprecedented limit, while frantically urging the strange seed within him to conceal every trace of its aura! He even expended some of his newly recovered energy to imitate the dead stillness of the nest's vines, disguising himself as a lifeless piece of "background."
Rumble...
The seawater parted, and an indescribably enormous shadow slowly covered the nest. Xuanwei did not even dare use his spiritual sense to "look." He could only sense through the almost tangible pressure that it was an unimaginable being, one whose power was absolutely above the Golden Immortal realm—perhaps even higher!
The terrifying being seemed to inspect the nest and the giant eggs. After finding them unharmed, it let out a low, satisfied hiss—or perhaps an undulation of thought. Then it injected an even purer and more majestic Wood Element origin and chaotic aura into the Chaos Soil at the nest's core, clearly using it to nourish its offspring.
After doing all this, the terrifying being's will receded like the tide, seemingly sinking back into some corner of the deep sea to sleep once more.
Xuanwei waited for a long time. Only after the pressure had completely vanished did he dare to "breathe" a little. His immortal qi body had nearly been scared apart.
"That was too thrilling... It was like stealing lamp oil right under the King of Hell's nose!" The lingering fear shook him, while his resolve to leave as soon as possible grew even firmer.
As he continued cautiously absorbing energy to recover, he began studying the Chaos Bead's newly unlocked [Primary Space Marking] function. This was his only hope at present!
He tried attaching a strand of divine sense to the Chaos Bead's power and carefully left an extremely concealed spatial coordinate at the edge of the nest. The process required the utmost caution; he could not trigger a backlash from the nest's own force field.
Just as he finished the marking and prepared to recover enough strength in one go before immediately activating the mark to teleport away—
Another change arose!
The strange seed within him, which had only just sprouted, seemed to reach a critical point after absorbing enough Jianmu origin and chaotic aura. It suddenly shook!
An even purer, more ancient chaotic Wood Element Dao Rhyme, as though it had originated at the beginning of heaven and earth, rippled outward from him like waves! At the same time, a small fragment of incomplete yet incomparably profound inheritance information surged into his consciousness along with the seed's tremor:
Azure Emperor Longevity Art (Incomplete)—Command life force, create all things; the path of Wood Element, with chaos as its root...
This was clearly a supreme method pointing directly toward the origin of the great dao of chaotic Wood Element! Though it was only an incomplete fragment, its value was immeasurable!
However, this sudden Dao Rhyme fluctuation, immense in essence though faint in force, was like a stone dropped into a calm lake!
Buzz!
All the vines in the nest suddenly lit up! The terrifying being sleeping in the deep sea was disturbed once more! This time, the descending will was no longer a mere inspection—it carried distinct fury and a focused lock!
It had discovered the "thief" stealing the resources meant for its offspring!
"Roar—!"
A furious roar seemingly from the primordial age pierced through layers of seawater and exploded directly within Xuanwei's consciousness! Terrifying pressure, like billions of tons of seawater, crushed inward from every direction, seeking to grind him and that damned seed into dust!
[Warning! Locked onto and attacked by a being above the Golden Immortal level! Survival probability below 0.1%!] [Emergency plan: Consume all energy and forcibly activate Primary Space Marking teleportation! Target: Marked point (nest edge)!] [Warning: The teleportation process will be extremely unstable and may enter unknown spatial turbulence!]
Life and death hung in the balance!
Xuanwei did not hesitate in the slightest. He frantically activated the Chaos Bead and all the energy he had just recovered, detonating that newly marked spatial coordinate!
Whoosh!
At the very instant before the terrifying will's attack struck him, his figure was enveloped by spatial power once again and abruptly vanished from where he stood!
Yet unlike the direct teleportation to the nest's edge that he had expected, the moment the teleportation activated, he felt the nest's powerful force field and the terrifying being's will severely interfere with the spatial passage!
The world spun around him. Spatial turbulence tore wildly at his immortal qi body like bone-scraping steel blades! He felt as though he had been tossed into a washing machine, then stuffed into a high-speed grinder!
[Teleportation severely disrupted! Coordinates shifted! Falling toward an unknown region!] [Host injuries worsened! Energy level plummeting! 10%... 5%...]
Just as Xuanwei's consciousness was about to be completely torn apart and swallowed by the spatial turbulence, the strange seed that had only just sprouted seemed to sense the mortal danger. It suddenly unleashed its final burst of powerful chaotic Wood Element vitality, forming a layer of azure-yellow Light Cocoon that tightly wrapped around his shattered immortal qi body!
At the same time, the Chaos Bead shone brilliantly, forcibly stabilizing the final trace of the spatial passage.
Who knew how long passed? It seemed like only an instant, yet also like countless millennia.
Thud!
He felt himself fall onto solid ground once more. The Light Cocoon condensed by the seed instantly shattered, transforming into pure energy that fused into his nearly collapsing origin and preserved his final thread of life.
He barely opened his "eyes," gathering his last wisp of thought, and discovered that he seemed to have landed on a desolate beach covered in black reefs. In the distance, he could vaguely make out the outline of Liubo Immortal Island.
By some twist of fate, he had been flung back near Liubo Immortal Island!
But his condition was now terrible beyond measure. His energy level had almost fallen to zero, and his immortal qi body was covered in cracks, like a glazed cup that had been shattered and then barely glued back together. His consciousness was blurred as well. Only the instinct to survive remained, frantically absorbing the thin spiritual qi around him to sustain his existence.
"...Am I... going to die..." he thought hazily.
Just as his consciousness was about to sink completely into darkness, three familiar, graceful streaks of light carrying urgency and concern shot toward this barren shore like meteors tearing through the night sky...
Before you continue