On the isolated island, silence returned.
A middle-aged Daoist wearing a Fish Tail Golden Crown and a Water-Cloud Patterned Robe, with a face like carved jade and eyes like cold stars,
along with two Mid True Immortal independent cultivators from overseas and a Demon Immortal with a muddled aura, looked at one another.
With no hope of obtaining the spiritual root and wary of both the mysterious treasure thief's methods and the fierce might of the Golden Immortal Demon General, all of them wore frustrated expressions.
"Forget it, forget it. The opportunity has not arrived, and it cannot be forced."
One independent cultivator shook his head and sighed before taking flight in another direction.
"Even that old monster Crimson Flame fell. That treasure thief is definitely no harmless sort. Let's go, let's go."
The other independent cultivator and the Demon Immortal also shook their heads before turning into streaks of light and swiftly departing.
In the blink of an eye, only the Fish-Tail Crown Daoist remained on the isolated island.
The sea breeze fluttered the hem of his Water-Cloud Patterned Robe, making it snap in the wind.
The aloof, ethereal, faintly regretful expression on his face vanished in an instant, replaced by deep gloom and greed.
"Hmph, a bunch of idiots!"
The Daoist's lips curled into a cold smile, and his voice became low and no longer carried even a trace of immortal detachment.
"They may be fooled, but how could they possibly fool my Nine Nether Soul Chasing Art?"
His hands rapidly formed an exceptionally strange and sinister set of Mystic Arts. As his ten fingers moved, wisps of dark green ghostly light seeped from his fingertips and slithered through the air like living creatures.
He chanted under his breath, the obscure incantation carrying a sinister power that hooked souls and seized spirits.
"Heaven and Earth Limitless, Nine Nether, lend me your power! All beings leave traces, chase the soul and seize the spirit! By decree!"
With his final low shout, the Daoist joined two fingers like a sword and fiercely pointed at the spot where the residual aura from Dao Xuan and Crimson Flame Ancestor's battle was strongest!
Buzz!
The wisps of dark green ghostly light suddenly gathered, turning into a strange rotating rune the size of a walnut!
At the rune's center was an intangible trace of aura, so faint it was almost impossible to detect, yet containing Dao Xuan's unique Geng Metal aura and a thread of the Chaos Bead's weak Dao resonance.
It was forcibly separated and captured from the chaotic, mixed aura of the battlefield!
This trace of aura seemed to be drawn by an invisible thread. One end was firmly tied to the rune, while the other pointed toward the southeast, the direction in which Dao Xuan had fled!
Though faint and wavering due to the great distance, it was incomparably clear!
"Found you!"
Greed surged in the Fish-Tail Crown Daoist's eyes, nearly bursting forth.
"A Mid-grade Innate offensive Spiritual Treasure! A Mid-Grade Innate Spiritual Root! And that brat also seems to carry... a trace of indescribably ancient Dao resonance!
A heaven-sent opportunity! It is only right that it belongs to me!"
Without another moment of hesitation, he swept his sleeve and put away the dark green rune.
The cool immortal light around him instantly transformed into a deep, murky dark green radiance.
He turned into a silent dark green streak of light of astonishing speed, tearing through the sky as he wildly pursued Dao Xuan at several times his previous speed!
"Brat, your treasures and your life are mine!"
Above the vast Eastern Sea, a pale golden streak of light skimmed close to the surging surface, fleeing as swiftly as lightning.
It was Dao Xuan.
He fully activated the Heavenly Water Evasion Art, his body nearly merging with the boundless blue waves below. Drawing on the strength of endless water essence, he pushed his speed to its limit.
Sensing that the several powerful auras behind him had not pursued, Dao Xuan finally relaxed somewhat.
"Whew... that was close!" he secretly rejoiced.
Good thing I ran fast. That Golden Immortal Demon General looked like trouble. The Chaos Bead conceals heavenly secrets, and the Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd keeps its edge hidden. As long as I don't expose them myself, I should be able to shake them off...
Before the thought was finished—
Boom!
An unprecedented, bone-chilling, terrifying warning that pierced straight into his primordial spirit suddenly stabbed into his Sea of Consciousness like hundreds of millions of steel needles!
Dao Xuan's whole body jolted, and even his escape light faltered!
"Not good!"
His face instantly turned pale, and alarm bells rang madly in his heart.
"I've been locked onto! That Golden Immortal? No, that aura is wrong! It's... that Daoist wearing the Fish-Tail Crown! He can actually track me?!"
Dao Xuan understood at once that the other party possessed an exceptionally sophisticated tracking secret art!
He had still underestimated the methods of Great Desolation cultivators!
He did not dare hesitate in the slightest. Biting the tip of his tongue, he used the sharp pain to forcibly suppress the dizziness brought on by his primordial spirit's warning, then crazily poured all his mana into his evasion art without holding anything back!
"Faster!"
The pale golden escape light suddenly brightened, and his speed surged by another thirty percent, leaving a long white trail across the sea!
However, it was too late!
Only a dozen or so breaths passed!
A vast, icy, terrifying pressure carrying grim killing intent rapidly descended from behind like an invisible canopy!
Its power far surpassed the True Immortal realm. It was unmistakably at the Golden Immortal level!
Moreover, its aura was even more vicious and troublesome than that Demon General's earlier aura!
"Brat! Where do you think you're going? Leave behind the Spiritual Treasure and spiritual root, and this ancestor may show mercy and spare your true spirit to reincarnate!"
A cold, greedy voice, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue, pierced through space and rang directly beside Dao Xuan's ear!
It was the Fish-Tail Crown Daoist who called himself Venerable Xuanyin!
Without turning his head, Dao Xuan cursed inwardly, Spare my true spirit to reincarnate? Like hell I believe you! These Great Desolation old schemers are rotten to the core!
Mana surged through him as his escape light grew another fraction faster, while his divine sense remained firmly locked onto the rear.
A dark green streak of light was rushing after him like a ghost that hunted souls and claimed lives, visibly closing the distance!
After only a few flickers, it had reached within less than a thousand zhang behind Dao Xuan!
Venerable Xuanyin's gloomy face was clearly visible, his eyes gleaming with the cruelty and greed of a cat toying with a mouse.
"Stubborn fool! Stop for this ancestor!"
Venerable Xuanyin snorted coldly and swept his sleeve!
A gigantic ghost claw condensed entirely from dark green, viscous nether ghost qi appeared out of nowhere!
Wronged souls wrapped around the claw, their shrill cries piercing the ears. Carrying the terrifying power to freeze Divine Souls and defile mana, it tore through the void and viciously clawed at Dao Xuan's back!
A Golden Immortal's strike possessed heaven-shaking might!
Before it even reached him, the icy aura had already made Dao Xuan feel as if he had fallen into an ice cave, slowing even his escape light!
There was no avoiding it!
"Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd!" A fierce glint flashed through Dao Xuan's eyes. He knew that he could only stake everything on this!
He abruptly turned around, and the dark golden short halberd in his hand erupted with unprecedented dazzling light!
Twenty-seven Innate Restrictions circulated madly as the sharp intent to break all laws condensed to the extreme!
"Break!"
Dao Xuan poured every last drop of mana, including the portion he had only just recovered, into the Law-Breaking Halberd. He then thrust it fiercely at the gigantic ghost claw rushing toward him!
A dense dark golden beam, solid as substance and capable of tearing through space, crashed fiercely into the dark green ghost claw!
Sizzle—!
A piercing sound of corrosion and dissolution rang out!
The Law-Breaking Halberd's law-breaking divine might was indeed extraordinary!
The dark golden beam actually pierced into the ghost claw's palm, its destructive force crazily eroding the claw and continuously annihilating the dark green ghost qi at the point of contact!
However, Golden Immortal mana was as vast as the sea!
The ghost claw merely paused for an instant. A small hole had been pierced through its palm, but its overall power was not significantly weakened!
Boundless nether ghost qi surged back along the Law-Breaking Halberd like raging ocean waves!
Boom!
An irresistible force slammed fiercely into Dao Xuan!
Pfft!
Dao Xuan was struck as if by a giant hammer. His throat sweetened, and he violently spat out a mouthful of blood!
His right arm holding the halberd felt as though it were tearing apart, and the web between his thumb and forefinger instantly split open, blood pouring out! The Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd let out a mournful cry, its light dimming considerably!
Like a kite with its string cut, he was violently hurled away by the immense force. He smashed through several huge waves below and plowed a long trench across the sea's surface!
The gap in cultivation was like an impassable chasm!
Even with a Mid-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, an Early True Immortal facing an Early Golden Immortal head-on was still like an ant trying to topple a tree!
"An ant shaking a tree. You do not know your own limits!"
Venerable Xuanyin sneered, greed burning even brighter in his eyes. "What a fine treasure! In your hands, it is a bright pearl covered in dust! Hand it over!"
With a flash, he appeared above Dao Xuan. His withered hand reached out once more, transforming into an even larger ghost claw that descended like it could blot out the sky!
This time, it targeted the Mysterious Gold Law-Breaking Halberd in Dao Xuan's hand!
Clearly, he intended to seize this troublesome Spiritual Treasure first!
The shadow of death instantly enveloped Dao Xuan!
Covered in blood, his organs displaced and his mana in disarray, Dao Xuan watched as the ghost claw was about to descend!
"Damn it! I can't beat him! Of the thirty-six strategies, retreat is the best!"
Dao Xuan roared inwardly, a trace of determination flashing through his eyes!
Run! He had to run! His only path to survival lay beneath the water!
"Roar—!!!"
A dragon's roar that pierced the clouds and shattered stone, shaking the Four Seas with the savagery and unyielding will of a Great Desolation Fierce Beast, erupted!
Golden light radiated from Dao Xuan's body!
His towering nine-foot Dao Body vanished in an instant!
In its place appeared a colossal creature a thousand zhang long!
Its body wound like a mountain range, covered in dark golden scales the size of bowls. Every scale shimmered with the faint light of ancient stars, their edges sharp as divine weapons!
Its head was imposing and vaguely draconic, while a pair of enormous golden vertical pupils burned with raging fury!
At the center of its forehead, the black jade horn shone with platinum light more brilliantly than ever, like a sword that cleaved open heaven and pierced the firmament!
The first Golden Flood Dragon of heaven and earth! His true form manifested!
A terrifying Great Desolation Fierce Beast aura, mixed with incomparably pure Innate Geng Metal essence and water essence power, swept across the surroundings!
It even scattered part of the descending nether ghost qi!
"What?!"
Caught off guard, Venerable Xuanyin was struck by the sudden burst of ferocious aura and blinding golden light. His movements stalled slightly, and a hint of shock flashed through his eyes.
"It is actually a transformed Golden Flood Dragon?!"
That momentary delay was all he needed!
"Into the sea!"
Dao Xuan's enormous golden vertical pupils fixed on Venerable Xuanyin for one final instant as his thousand-zhang flood dragon body suddenly swung!
Rumble!
Like a mountain toppling over, enormous waves surged into the sky!
The massive dark golden flood dragon body raised a heaven-shaking tsunami, then plunged headfirst into the vast, boundless Eastern Sea with unstoppable momentum!
The instant he entered the water, the ancient star patterns on his dark golden scales suddenly lit up, as though they had resonated with the water essence power of the entire Eastern Sea!
The Heavenly Water Evasion Art was pushed to an unprecedented extreme!
Rather than becoming a hindrance, Dao Xuan's massive flood dragon body was like a fish returning to the sea, transforming into a dark golden streak faster than lightning.
Guided by the vast water veins of the Eastern Sea, he fled madly toward the deepest reaches of the ocean!
He was more than ten times faster than he had been in the air! All that remained was a rapidly spreading ripple and a sky full of spray!
"Beast! Do not run!"
Only then did Venerable Xuanyin react. He was so furious that smoke nearly came out of his seven orifices! Seeing the cooked duck about to fly away, how could he accept that?
"Myriad Souls Banner! Appear!"
With an angry roar, a long banner appeared in his hand. It was entirely black, its surface embroidered with countless savage ghost faces and radiating monstrous resentment and icy power!
It was his natal magic treasure, the Low-grade Acquired Spiritual Treasure—the Myriad Souls Banner!
"Ten Thousand Ghosts Devour Souls! Seal this sea region for me!"
Venerable Xuanyin wildly waved the Myriad Souls Banner!
Wooo—!
Miserable wails and ghostly howls rang across sea and sky!
Countless resentful souls and fierce spirits with twisted faces and pained cries poured from the banner, transforming into a dark green ghost cloud that covered the sky and sun as it fiercely descended upon the waters where Dao Xuan had entered!
Wherever the ghost cloud passed, the seawater instantly became thick and icy, as if it were about to freeze solid!
Countless resentful souls stretched out ghost claws, trying to seize and bite the dark golden streak!
However, Dao Xuan had already descended a thousand zhang beneath the surface!
The Eastern Sea was vast, and its water essence power was boundless!
As the first Golden Flood Dragon of heaven and earth, Dao Xuan was naturally attuned to water and had been nurtured by the Eastern Sea itself!
Now that he had manifested his true form and fully activated his innate water evasion divine ability, merging with the Eastern Sea's source water veins, how could the nether ghost qi of a mere Myriad Souls Banner possibly imprison him so easily?
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle!
Wherever the dark golden streak passed, the icy ghost qi invading the seawater met its nemesis, constantly being washed away, purified, and dispersed by pure water essence power and Geng Metal's sharpness!
The countless resentful souls and fierce spirits rushing at him were instantly shredded and annihilated by the starlight flowing across his dark golden scales and the lingering power of law-breaking!
"Damn it! Damn it!"
Venerable Xuanyin stood in the sky, watching the dark green ghost cloud below be continuously torn apart and scattered by the rapidly fleeing dark golden streak.
No matter how he activated the Myriad Souls Banner, he could not truly hinder that figure merged with the water veins. He was so enraged that he nearly vomited blood!
He tried entering the water to pursue him as well.
But the moment he entered, the omnipresent, vast, and boundless water essence power placed enormous suppression upon him!
His escape speed plummeted, and his divine sense was greatly restricted by the seawater. How could he possibly catch that dark golden streak, which had long since merged into the water veins and traveled a thousand miles in an instant?
"Ah—! This infuriates me!"
Venerable Xuanyin flew into a rage, wildly brandishing the Myriad Souls Banner and churning the sea into raging waves amid wails of ghosts and howls of spirits.
Yet he could only watch helplessly as Dao Xuan's aura vanished completely into the boundless, dark-blue depths, impossible to track any longer.
"Golden Flood Dragon! This ancestor will remember you! To the ends of the earth, I will avenge this grudge!"
He let out an unwilling roar toward the vast ocean. In the end, he could only transform into a dark-green streak of light and leave in frustration, filled with fury and resentment.
Dao Xuan did not know how long he had fled.
Revealing his true form, he drove his water escape technique with all his strength. Following the guidance of the East Sea's vast water veins, he had already put countless thousands of miles between himself and that troubled stretch of sea.
At first, his mind had been taut with tension. His divine sense constantly guarded against pursuit from behind, his mana burned away madly, and he had even spared no effort in burning his blood essence to increase his escape speed.
Gradually, the terrifying sensation of being locked onto, like a blade at his back, vanished completely.
After a long while, once he was certain that Venerable Xuanyin could no longer catch up, the taut string in Dao Xuan's heart slowly relaxed.
An indescribable weariness and searing pain instantly swept through his entire body.
The recoil from directly clashing with that Golden Immortal's attack, coupled with the expenditure of forcibly pushing his true form's water escape to its limit, had placed an enormous burden on this body of his, which had only recently taken form.
His organs ached faintly, his meridians were swollen and felt ready to tear apart, and his mana was nearly exhausted.
His massive dark-golden flood dragon body slowed, drifting slowly through the sea as he absorbed water-element energy to recover.
"Whew... that old Golden Immortal monster really is terrifying!" Dao Xuan said with lingering fear.
"If I hadn't been in the East Sea, and if my Golden Flood Dragon true form hadn't been born with control over water, I might have died today... The Primordial World is full of traps. Staying alive is the real way!"
As he silently circulated his cultivation technique to recover, he drifted with the currents, allowing the power of the water veins to carry him onward. Even his consciousness grew somewhat hazy.
He did not know how much time passed—perhaps a day, perhaps several.
Dao Xuan's muddled consciousness suddenly sensed that the water-element energy around him had become exceptionally warm and peaceful. No longer was it as icy and piercing as the deep sea; instead, it carried a strange warmth that nourished the Divine Soul.
The current also became calm and gentle, as though some invisible force had smoothed it out.
His enormous golden vertical pupils slowly opened.
The sight before him jolted his weary mind awake!
The seawater ahead was incomparably clear, taking on a dreamlike azure hue.
Countless spirit fish and aquatic creatures radiating soft light swam leisurely among vibrant coral reefs.
Lush aquatic plants swayed with the waves like an emerald forest.
Farther away, the seawater gradually lightened in color, faintly revealing bright light from above.
Dao Xuan instinctively swung his flood dragon body and swam toward the light.
His thousand-zhang flood dragon body burst through the surface, sending glittering spray flying into the sky.
When Dao Xuan's enormous head emerged from the sea and he saw the scene before him clearly, even with his steadfast mind—
He could not help but suck in a sharp breath, his enormous golden vertical pupils filled with shock and disbelief!
Before him lay boundless emerald waves surrounding an incomparably vast immortal island!
The splendor of this island surpassed his birthplace by a hundredfold—no, a thousandfold!
Behold:
Ten thousand rays of sunset light rolled like rainbows, while a thousand auspicious mists breathed forth purple haze!
Towering immortal isles reached the Milky Way, and ethereal spirit peaks hid the mystic capital.
Jade grasses and precious flowers gave rise to auspicious energy; exotic blooms exhaled sweet fragrances.
Verdant pines and emerald cypresses remained evergreen, while immortal cranes, dark apes, and long-lived deer rested below.
Golden-scaled creatures danced beside jade bridges, and Colorful Phoenixes emerged from the Purple Bamboo Forest.
Green tiles and carved eaves concealed celestial palaces, while auspicious clouds coiled around golden halls.
Truly: the foremost realm of immortals beyond the seas, the furnace of creation born when chaos first divided!
Dense Innate Spiritual Energy, nearly condensed into tangible spirit mist, pervaded the island's surroundings. With every breath, he felt refreshed and invigorated, and even his mana grew a little more active.
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