There stood a towering divine tree, nine hundred and ninety-nine zhang, nine chi, and nine cun tall. Five-Colored Divine Light enveloped its entire form. Its crown spread like a canopy, its trunk twisted like a horned dragon, its leaves were sharp as needles, and its fruit resembled pinecones.
It was constantly being tempered by Five Elements Essence Qi and Great Dao Laws. Hunyuan Qi radiated from its entire body, and it existed between reality and the void. Unless one examined the area at close range, it would be difficult even to discover its location.
This spiritual root was none other than the Top-grade Innate Spiritual Root, the Five Needles Pine.
Though it wasn't among the Ten Great Top-grade Innate Spiritual Roots, it wasn't much weaker. It also contained all five elements and complemented the Five Elements Pagoda, allowing it to unleash a portion of a supreme treasure's might.
Comprehending the Dao beneath the Five Needles Pine greatly benefited one's understanding of the Five Elements Laws.
The pinecones produced by the Five Needles Pine were treasures in their own right. They changed once every five thousand years, and each crop took fifteen thousand years to mature. They came in five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, and earth—and each harvest yielded ten of each, for a total of fifty pinecones.
Each pinecone contained a trace of its corresponding Innate Five Elements Origin. Eating one pinecone of each element could help a cultivator gather the Five Elements Qi within their chest;
and if someone with deep fortune waited one hundred and fifty thousand years and ate one hundred of each, they could even reverse the acquired into the innate, transforming their constitution into an Innate Five-Spirit Body.
Of course, given Xuanyuan and Tongtian's roots and cultivation, eating a few pinecones from the Five Needles Pine wouldn't have any significant effect.
What Xuanyuan valued more was the connection between the Five Elements Pagoda, the Five Needles Pine, the Five Immortal Islands, and the Primordial World Five Elements Origin!
After that came the help they offered in comprehending the Five Elements Great Dao, along with the Five Five Elements Ancestral Witches in Pangu Hall.
"Yin-Yang Ancestor's scheme?" Tongtian asked, puzzled.
The two Immortal Islands had fallen into Return to Ruins because of the Dragon-Kin Giant Clan's misdeeds. How had Old Ancestor Five Elements' scheme gotten involved?
Could it be that Old Ancestor Five Elements had foreseen a Death Calamity during the Demon Dao Struggle, and hidden the Five Elements Pagoda and Five Needles Pine here in advance to keep his treasures from being lost?
That would make sense.
The Innate Five Elements restrictions on the Five Immortal Islands could stop other great cultivators, but not Old Ancestor Five Elements, who was proficient in the Five Elements Great Dao.
"It's not that simple. Hongjun attained the Dao, and the other Old Ancestors weren't content to sit idle, either."
"If the Heaven and Earth Five Elements Origin were restored, and Old Ancestor Five Elements used his own natal treasures to stand in for the Heaven and Earth Five Elements Deficiency, he could steal Heaven and Earth Power and the Primordial World Origin. Attaining the Dao wouldn't be difficult, and he could claim a Saint Position as well."
Xuanyuan shook his head.
If Old Ancestor Five Elements had succeeded in replacing the Primordial World Five Elements Origin and used the Five Immortal Islands to suppress the Heaven and Earth Five Elements, he might have become an unorthodox Earth Dao Saint.
And if he'd also obtained treasures suited to the Five Elements Great Dao, like the Five Innate Directional Flags and the Five Spirit Pearls, and filled the islands with them...
Old Ancestor Five Elements could have established the Earth Path and stood level with Hongjun!
Hongjun had taken the Heavenly Path, so would Five Elements take the Earth Path?
They had appeared to die in battle, but in truth, they were all scheming behind the scenes.
Xuanyuan also knew that Old Ancestor Five Elements' plan had ultimately failed. Otherwise, there would have been more than three Immortal Islands in the East Sea even by the time of the Journey to the West Calamity.
But these old monsters were the sort to plan three steps ahead for every one they took. They couldn't be underestimated in the slightest!
"So that's what happened!"
"If things are as Fourth Brother deduced, then the destruction of the Dragon-Kin Giant Clan probably wasn't so simple."
Tongtian nodded, though he didn't take it too much to heart.
The Dragon-Kin Giant Clan was gone, and so be it. Whether Old Ancestor Five Elements had secretly pushed things along made no difference. It had nothing to do with him and his brother anyway.
Xuanyuan said nothing more, but in truth, he already knew the truth behind the Dragon-Kin Giants fishing for the Golden Ao.
The Dragon-Kin Giants' fishing for the Golden Ao and burning its shell had probably been Old Ancestor Five Elements' scheme, just as Luohu had schemed against the Dragon-Phoenix-Kirin Three Clans, and the Two Sages of the West would one day scheme against the demon race.
They were nothing more than pitiful, wretched pawns.
After this, Xuanyuan couldn't help worrying a little about Tongtian.
After all, his elder brother had the Yin Yang Law inscribed in his bloodline and was an Yin Yang Ancestral Witch. If he successfully followed the Great Dao of Yin Yang one day, he would inevitably become entangled in karma and a Dao Struggle with Yin-Yang Ancestor.
Yin-Yang Ancestor had fallen during the Demon Dao Struggle, slain by Luohu's Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, but...
Old Ancestor Yang Mei had still managed to return from death. As another reincarnation of a Chaos Demon God's true spirit, how could Yin-Yang Ancestor have left no means of his own?
"Brother, I'll put these two treasures away first. Once we return to Pangu Hall, we can comprehend them together with our brothers and sisters."
As he spoke, Xuanyuan raised his hand and used the Universe in a Sleeve Divine Ability, taking the Five Needles Pine and the Five Elements Pagoda into his sleeve without meeting any resistance.
"Rumble!"
Just then, the previously peaceful Five-Colored Auspicious Clouds suddenly churned violently. Vast quantities of Innate Five Elements Essence Qi boiled like a great sea, then exploded with a crash.
Green, red, yellow, white, and black lights intertwined and collided, shattering Chaos Qi. Space and time twisted like a shattered mirror.
"Crack, crack!"
One terrifying rift after another spread across the sky above the Immortal Island, accompanied by the ear-piercing sound of space tearing apart.
"Hm?!"
A voice of startled displeasure rang out of nowhere, carrying immense pressure. It seemed capable of breaking through the barriers of Infinite Space-time and Chaos, directly shaking the two men's souls.
Then, a bone-chilling gaze pierced through layer upon layer of space and time, landing on Xuanyuan and Tongtian as though it had physical form.
The hairs on their bodies stood on end, and a chill shot from the soles of their feet to the tops of their heads.
Just a single glance had provoked such a reaction from two Grand Unity Golden Immortals at Perfection. The owner of that gaze possessed power and divine abilities of truly terrifying magnitude!
"Not good!"
Xuanyuan's pupils contracted. Merit Power surged from his body, forming a shield around himself and Tongtian. Then the Chaos Pearl in his soul shuddered violently, and dazzling Chaos Light flared around them as the Chaos World Projection slowly emerged.
It severed the secrets of Heaven and cut off karma!
"Coiling Dragon Flat Crutch, go!"
Tongtian understood at once. He struck out with the Coiling Dragon Flat Crutch, sending forth a beam of mystic light imbued with the Great Dao of Strength Law. It drew upon Pangu's Residual Might in the Guixu Land and blasted toward the Space-time Rift above the Immortal Island.
A thunderous crash shook Guixu.
Countless Chaos Residual Qi were broken down into Innate Spiritual Qi under the impact of the Great Dao of Strength Law. The attack faintly stirred the remnants of Pangu's Heaven-Opening Imprint on the Chaos Fragments. An illusory Axe Shadow, so faint it could barely be seen yet powerful enough to suppress the Three Thousand Great Daos, pinned down the shattered space and time, cutting off that gaze as well.
"Old Ancestor Five Elements is still alive, after all."
Tongtian's face was full of lingering fear as he poured all his strength into the Coiling Dragon Flat Crutch.
Thankfully, the brothers had a Merit Treasure in hand, and Guixu itself could sever the secrets of Heaven.
Otherwise, the moment they returned to the Primordial World, they would have been cornered by Old Ancestor Five Elements, that Hidden World old monster.
There was no need to mention Old Ancestor Five Elements' origins as a Five Elements Demon God. During the Demon Dao Struggle, his cultivation had already reached Perfection Primordial Golden Immortal.
Even if he hadn't advanced further, he was at least as powerful as a Primordial Golden Immortal now—and perhaps already close to becoming a Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal, with great freedom and ease.
He was absolutely more powerful than Candle Dragon of the East Sea!
In any case, the brothers had only been incarnated into the world for a short time. They were no match for a great cultivator of this caliber.
"It's fine. That was a close call, but we're safe. Brother, scour Yuan Jiao Immortal Island, then we'll go to another island and return to Pangu Hall as soon as possible," Xuanyuan said gravely.
Once they returned to Pangu Hall, Yin-Yang Ancestor wouldn't be able to find them. Even if he dragged Hongjun along to lay siege to the entrance, they still wouldn't be able to force their way in.
The only regret was that, until they surpassed Old Ancestor Five Elements in strength, they couldn't reveal the Five Needles Pine or the Five Elements Pagoda in public.
The rampaging Five Elements Essence Qi gradually settled. The brothers continued gathering Innate Spiritual Roots and various Innate Spiritual Treasures on Yuan Jiao Immortal Island.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the Primordial World, Old Ancestor Five Elements emerged from a long seclusion, his gaze fixed on Purple Heavens Palace beyond Chaos.
In his view, the only thing in the Primordial World capable of blocking his perception was the Jade Disc of Creation in Hongjun's hands.
The Jade Disc of Creation had shattered when Heaven was opened. Hongjun had gathered most of the fragments and reforged them. Though it had fallen from the rank of a Chaos Supreme Treasure, it was still a Chaos Spiritual Treasure.
A grudge for hindering one's Dao was greater than the heavens. Old Ancestor Five Elements couldn't swallow his anger, and he didn't care about their old friendship anymore.
Hongjun had been peacefully cultivating in Purple Heavens Palace, refining the vast merit power of Heaven he'd gained during the Demon Dao Struggle.
He was about to unite his Three Corpses when Old Ancestor Five Elements inexplicably came knocking. Anger rose in Hongjun's heart, and he decided to test the other man's divine abilities and methods, and have it out with him.
Of course, the great cultivators—reincarnations of Chaos Demon Gods' true spirits—were about to erupt into a fierce battle in Chaos. It had nothing to do with Xuanyuan and Tongtian.
After thoroughly looting Yuan Jiao Immortal Island, the two turned their attention to Daiyu Immortal Island.
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