27. Seeking to Prove the Earth Path? Old Ancestor Five Elements' Gaze

There, a divine tree nine hundred and ninety-nine zhang, nine chi, and nine cun tall stood towering and majestic, its entire body shrouded in five-colored divine light. Its crown spread like a canopy, its trunk coiled like a hornless dragon, its leaves sharp as needles, and its fruit resembling pinecones.

Yet it ceaselessly endured the baptism of Five Elements Essence Qi and the laws of the Great Dao, exuding a Hunyuan Qi from within, suspended between reality and the void. Without close inspection, it was difficult even to perceive its existence.

This spiritual root was none other than the top-grade innate spiritual root, the Five Needles Pine.

Though it did not rank among the Ten Great Top-grade Innate Spiritual Roots, it was not far behind. Moreover, it encompassed all five elements, complementing the Five Elements Pagoda, and could thus unleash a measure of the might of a supreme treasure.

Comprehending the Dao beneath this Five Needles Pine offered immense benefits for grasping the laws of the five elements.

The pine nuts borne by the Five Needles Pine were also treasures. They transformed once every five thousand years, and a single season of ripening required fifteen thousand years. Divided into the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, each type yielded ten nuts per cycle, producing fifty nuts in total.

Each pine nut contained a trace of the corresponding Innate Five Elements Origin. If one consumed one nut of each of the five elemental types, it could help a cultivator gather the Five Elements Qi within their chest.

And if one with deep karmic fortune could wait a full one hundred fifty thousand years and consume a hundred of each type, they could even reverse the acquired into the innate, transforming their physique into an Innate Five Spirit Body.

Of course, given Xuanyuan and Tongtian's origins and cultivation, consuming a few pine nuts from the Five Needles Pine would yield no significant effect.

What he valued more was the connection between the Five Elements Pagoda, the Five Needles Pine, the Five Immortal Island, and the Primordial World Five Elements Origin!

As for the secondary benefit, it lay in aiding the comprehension of the Five Elements Great Dao, as well as the five Five Elements Ancestral Witches in Pangu Hall.

"Old Ancestor Yin Yang's scheme?" Tongtian's tone was doubtful.

Two of the immortal islands had fallen into the Return to Ruins because of the Dragon-Kin Giant Clan's transgressions. How could this be tied to Old Ancestor Five Elements' scheming?

Could it be that Old Ancestor Five Elements had long foreseen a death calamity in the Demon Dao Struggle and, to avoid losing his treasures, had hidden the Five Elements Pagoda and the Five Needles Pine here in advance?

If so, it did make sense.

The innate five-element restrictions of the Five Immortal Island could block other Great Divine Powers, but they could not stop Old Ancestor Five Elements, who was proficient in the Five Elements Great Dao.

"It's not that simple. With Hongjun attaining the Dao, the other old ancestors are hardly content to sit idle."

"With the Heaven and Earth Five Elements Origin restored, if Old Ancestor Five Elements were to use his own life treasure to temporarily fill the Heaven and Earth Five Elements Deficiency, stealing the Heaven and Earth Power and the Primordial World Origin, attaining the Dao would not be difficult. He, too, could claim a Saint Position."

Xuanyuan shook his head.

If Old Ancestor Five Elements succeeded in replacing the Primordial World Five Elements Origin and used the Five Immortal Island to suppress the Heaven and Earth Five Elements, he might even achieve an alternative form of Earth Dao Saint.

What's more, if he could obtain the Five Innate Directional Flags, the Five Spirit Pearls, and other treasures aligned with the Five Elements Great Dao and pour them all in...

Old Ancestor Five Elements could establish the Earth Dao and stand level with Hongjun!

Hongjun walked the Heavenly Dao, and Five Elements walked the Earth Dao?

On the surface, he had fallen in battle, but in truth, they were all stirring up trouble in the shadows.

Xuanyuan also knew that Old Ancestor Five Elements' plan would ultimately fail—otherwise, by the time of the Journey to the West Calamity, the East Sea would still have only three immortal islands.

But these old guys were the type to think three steps ahead with every move, and they could not be underestimated in the slightest!

"So that's how it is!"

"If it's as Fourth Brother calculates, then the annihilation of the Dragon-Kin Giant Clan is likely no simple matter."

Tongtian nodded, not overly concerned.

The Dragon-Kin Giant Clan had been wiped out—so be it. Whether Old Ancestor Five Elements had been pulling the strings behind the scenes had nothing to do with the two brothers.

Xuanyuan said no more, but in his heart, he already knew the truth behind the Dragon-Kin Giants fishing for the Golden Ao.

He suspected that the Dragon-Kin Giants fishing for the Golden Ao and burning tortoise shells were schemes orchestrated by Old Ancestor Five Elements, much like Luohu scheming against the Dragon-Phoenix-Kirin Three Clans, or the future Two Sages of the West scheming against the Demon Race.

They were nothing more than pitiable, tragic pawns.

After this incident, Xuanyuan was actually a bit worried for Tongtian.

After all, his elder brother had the Yin Yang Law etched into his bloodline and was a Yin Yang Ancestral Witch by birth. If he one day walked the Great Dao of Yin Yang, he would inevitably incur karma and a Dao struggle with Old Ancestor Yin Yang.

Old Ancestor Yin Yang had fallen in the Demon Dao Struggle, slain by Luohu's Immortal-Slaying Sword Formation, but...

Old Ancestor Yang Mei had managed to return from death. As a fellow Chaos Demon God reincarnated from a true spirit, how could Old Ancestor Yin Yang have left no backup plan?

"Brother, I'll put away these two treasures first. Once we return to Pangu Hall, we can comprehend them together with our siblings."

With that, Xuanyuan raised his hand and executed the Universe in a Sleeve Divine Ability, sweeping the Five Needles Pine and the Five Elements Pagoda into his sleeve without any resistance.

"Boom, rumble!"

Yet just then, the once-peaceful five-colored auspicious clouds suddenly churned violently. A sea of Innate Five Elements Essence Qi exploded like boiling rivers and seas.

Green, red, yellow, white, and black—five-colored light intertwined and clashed, shredding the Chaos Qi. Space-time twisted like a shattered mirror.

"Kacha, kacha!"

Gruesome cracks spread across the sky above the immortal island, and the piercing sound of space tearing rang without end.

"Oh?!"

A startled exclamation, laden with boundless pressure and displeasure, rang out from nowhere, as if it could pierce through the barriers of infinite space-time and chaos, directly shaking the two's primordial spirits.

Then, a gaze as cold as bone pierced through layer upon layer of time and space, landing like a physical weight on Xuanyuan and Tongtian.

The two felt every hair on their bodies stand on end, a chill surging from the soles of their feet straight to the tops of their heads.

A mere glance was enough to make two Grand Unity Golden Immortal Perfection cultivators react this way. The owner of that gaze possessed a level of magical power and divine ability that had reached a truly terrifying degree!

"Not good!"

Xuanyuan's pupils contracted as Merit Power burst forth all over his body, forming a light barrier that enveloped himself and Tongtian. Then, the Chaos Pearl within his Primordial Spirit trembled violently, and brilliant Chaos Light radiated around them as the Chaos World Projection slowly began to emerge.

Sealing off heavenly secrets, severing all karmic ties!

"Coiling Dragon Flat Crutch, go!"

Tongtian understood immediately. The Coiling Dragon Flat Crutch shot forth a profound light imbued with the Great Dao of Strength Law, drawing upon Pangu's Residual Might within Guixu Land to blast toward the Space-time Rift above the immortal island.

With a thunderous boom, Guixu trembled.

Countless strands of Chaos Residual Qi were decomposed into Innate Spiritual Qi under the impact of the Great Dao of Strength Law, faintly stirring the remnants of Pangu's Heaven-Opening Imprint left on the Chaos Fragments. A phantom axe shadow—so illusory it barely existed, yet capable of suppressing the Three Thousand Great Daos—pressed down upon the shattered space-time, simultaneously cutting off that watching gaze.

"That old thing, Old Ancestor Five Elements, is still alive."

Exerting all his strength to drive the Coiling Dragon Flat Crutch, Tongtian's face was full of lingering fear.

Fortunately, the two brothers possessed Merit Treasures in hand, and Guixu itself had the effect of severing heavenly secrets.

Otherwise, the moment they returned to the Primordial World, they would have been instantly blocked by Old Ancestor Five Elements, that old monster who had long been in hiding.

Needless to say, Old Ancestor Five Elements' origins as the Five Elements Demon God were already formidable. During the Demon Dao Struggle, his cultivation had already reached Perfection Primordial Golden Immortal.

Now, even if he hadn't taken another step forward on the hundred-foot pole, he was at least at the Primordial Golden Immortal level, and might not be far from that state of Great Freedom and Great Ease—the Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal of the Origin.

His strength was absolutely even greater than Candle Dragon of the East Sea!

No matter how one looked at it, the two brothers had only recently formed and emerged into the world; they were by no means a match for such a Great Divine Power.

"It's fine—a fright but no harm. Brother, let's strip Yuan Jiao Immortal Island clean, then head to the other immortal island and return to Pangu Hall as quickly as possible," Xuanyuan said in a grave tone.

As long as they returned to Pangu Hall, not only would Old Ancestor Yin Yang be unable to find them, but even if he dragged Hongjun along to block the door, they still wouldn't be able to break in.

The only pity was that until their strength surpassed Old Ancestor Five Elements, the two treasures—Five Needles Pine and the Five Elements Pagoda—could not be revealed outside.

The raging Five Elements Essence Qi gradually subsided, and the two brothers began collecting Innate Spiritual Roots and some Innate Spiritual Treasures on Yuan Jiao Immortal Island.

Meanwhile, somewhere on the Primordial World Earth, Old Ancestor Five Elements, who had long been in secluded cultivation, emerged from his retreat. His gaze directly pierced toward the Purple Firmament Palace beyond the Chaos.

In his view, the only thing within the Primordial World capable of blocking his probing was the Jade Disc of Creation in Hongjun's hands.

The Jade Disc of Creation had shattered during the opening of the heavens. Hongjun had picked up most of the fragments and reforged it. Though it had fallen from the rank of Chaos Supreme Treasure, it was still a Chaos Spiritual Treasure.

As the saying goes, the grudge of hindering the Dao is greater than heaven. Old Ancestor Five Elements naturally could not swallow this bitter anger, and he no longer cared about their past friendship.

As for Hongjun, he had been peacefully in secluded cultivation within the Purple Firmament Palace, refining the vast Heavenly Dao Merit he had gained from the Demon Dao Struggle. He was just about to unite the Three Corpses when Old Ancestor Five Elements inexplicably came knocking at his door. Filled with rising anger, Hongjun decided to test his divine abilities and sharpen his skills against the latter—a battle was inevitable.

Of course, this great clash between two Great Divine Powers, both reincarnated from the true spirits of Chaos Demon Gods, had nothing to do with Xuanyuan and Tongtian.

After stripping Yuan Jiao Immortal Island clean, the two brothers set their sights on Daiyu Immortal Island.