Penglai Island, Central Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner

The moment he set foot on the core of Penglai Immortal Island, an unprecedented tremor originating from the very essence of life surged through Zhenyuanzi like a tide.

Compared to Fangling Island's desolate cold and Yingzhou Island's purifying sanctity, the aura here was thick, deep and condensed, bearing all things with a maternal embrace and wordless majesty. It resonated with the deepest, most direct harmony with his own origin as the incarnation of the Essence of Innate Earthen Energy.

Like a wanderer returning home, like a drop merging into the sea, the earth vein spiritual energy of the entire Penglai Immortal Island rejoiced and celebrated, transmitting the purest sense of intimacy toward him.

This was not simple spiritual affinity, but an attraction and call at the level of origin—the very foundation of his existence finding its perfect reflection and final home in this place.

The soil of Penglai was the manifestation of his Dao; his essence was a wisp of true spirit from this boundless land.

He walked forward slowly. Beneath his feet was no ordinary earth, but Earthen Energy Essence flowing with warm jade light. Every step he took seemed to synchronize with the heartbeat of the entire island.

That warm jade light was not dead matter, but like living blood vessels, gently rippling with his steps, conveying messages of joy and acceptance.

Strange flowers and exotic herbs, jade branches and gem-like trees surrounded him, all emitting dense Earth Element spiritual energy and vigorous vitality, but these were merely embellishments.

His gaze pierced through layers of hazy Profound Yellow Qi, locking firmly onto the island's core. There lay the source of this realm's Wu Tu Essence, the heart of Penglai, and the ultimate goal that had summoned him here.

There, upon a small jade platform condensed from pure Innate Wu Tu Essence Qi, a banner quietly suspended.

The jade platform was naturally formed, bearing no trace of carving. Its texture was warm like suet, yet it contained unimaginable density and weight, as if a fragment of the Primordial Land's very core had been stripped away and placed here.

Above the platform, Profound Yellow Qi was so dense it nearly turned liquid, swirling like mist and clouds. At the center of this mist, the banner appeared vaguely visible, emitting a familiar fluctuation that made Zhenyuanzi's very soul tremble.

The flagpole was simple and unadorned, colored in Profound Yellow, as if forged from the core divine metal of the Primordial Land. Upon it were naturally engraved the veins of mountains and rivers, the Dao patterns of the earth's texture—not carved by later hands, but born from Heaven and Earth, the most intuitive manifestation of the "Earth" law.

Every texture flowed with an eternal and unchanging heaviness, as if bearing the weight of all mountains since the Creation of the World, the memories of all lands.

The flag surface fluttered without wind, rustling loudly, displaying an indescribable, pure earth-yellow hue that seemed to gather the essence of all soil in the Primordial Land.

This color was deep and restrained, not flashy or glaring, yet it contained the supreme power to bear the heavens and stabilize the universe.

When his gaze fell upon it, he seemed to see boundless plains, towering mountain ranges, bottomless valleys, and the soil that nurtured all life—all forms of the Primordial Land seemed condensed within this single banner.

Upon the flag surface, profound and mysterious runes appeared vaguely visible. They were not carved by later hands, but naturally generated by the Great Dao, like the language of the earth itself, expounding the ultimate principles of "bearing," "stability," "nurturing," and "returning to the source."

Each rune seemed like a miniature world, enacting the flow of earth veins, the rise of mountains, the condensation of mineral veins, the germination and stillness of life. Even more, strands of Profound Yellow Qi hung down like tassels, each strand as heavy as a mountain, yet as warm as motherly energy, nourishing everything around.

As the tassels swayed, space itself seemed to become viscous and stable. Any restless energy here returned to calm, smoothed out and absorbed by the power of the earth.

It was one of the Innate Five Directions Banners, the supreme treasure perfectly aligned with his Dao origin—the Central Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner!

A sudden clarity arose in Zhenyuanzi's heart, like clouds parting to reveal the sun, leaving no doubt.

This treasure and he were like the Book of the Earth to him—naturally aligned, an indispensable other half on his path of Dao.

In his Sea of Consciousness, memories of the Innate Five Directions Banners also appeared clearly, like a dust-sealed scroll slowly unrolling:

These five banners were transformed from the five lotus leaves of the Chaos Green Lotus, each possessing one direction's origin. All were Top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasures, containing Great Dao Laws, with vast and boundless power.

Eastern Green Lotus Treasure Color Banner: Belonged to Wood, governing life and creation. Green qi swirled like spring returning to the earth, all evils retreated, able to revive withered trees, grow flesh on old bones, revive all things, and sustain endless life. Its qi flow contained infinite life force, the beginning of creation.

Southern Ground-Leaving Flame Light Banner: Belonged to Fire, governing light and blazing intensity. Flame light rose like the sun hanging high, burning away all filth and evil in the world, able to break all demons, illuminate the underworld. Where its light reached, all evils retreated, the ultimate of purification and destruction.

Western Plain Colored Cloud Realm Banner: Belonged to Metal, governing slaughter and sharpness. Plain white and flawless like autumn frost and winter snow, its sharpness pierced the sky, able to cut karmic threads, destroy all spells and divine powers. Where its edge pointed, nothing remained unbroken, the symbol of rules and endings.

Northern Profound Origin Water Controlling Banner: Belonged to Water, governing extreme softness and extreme hardness. Profound black and deep like boundless abyssal seas, controlling all waters, able to nourish all things, moisten all living beings, or raise apocalyptic floods to overturn the universe, the embodiment of change and return.

Central Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner: Belonged to Earth, governing bearing and stability. Wuji occupied the center, Profound Yellow was heavy, the essence of the earth, the foundation of all laws. Able to stabilize Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, calm all turmoil, untouched by all laws, unapproachable by all evils. Its power was neither offensive nor defensive, but absolute "existence" and "support"—the pivot of the five directions, the core of the five elements, the cornerstone of universal order.

These five banners, when separated, each guarded one direction with infinite power. Holding one banner was enough to stand at the peak of the Primordial Land;

When combined, they could set up the Innate Five Elements Great Formation!

Once this formation was set up, the five elements rotated, mutually generating and restraining, forming a self-contained stable world, evolving Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, and stabilizing universal order.

Its defensive capability was an absolute barrier. No matter how supreme your divine powers, how vast your magical power, without a method to break the formation, you could not shake it in the slightest;

Its offensive might was enough to grind stars to dust, reenact chaos. The five elements cycled endlessly, ceaselessly generating life, enough to reduce a great thousand worlds to powder.

Its mystery and vast power were comparable to the later Wu Clan's All-Heavens God-Slaying Formation condensing Pangu True Body, the Demon Race's Great Formation of the Stars of the Heavens controlling the Stars of the Heavens, and the Immortal Slaying Sword Formation unbreakable by less than four saints—all were the top killing and guarding formations of the Primordial Land!

And among them, the "Earth" element represented by the Central Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner was the absolute core and foundation of this supreme formation, like the earth bearing all things, the key node for the stable operation of the five elements' rotation and energy cycle.

And this Central Wuji Apricot Yellow Banner before him was precisely the core foundation of this supreme formation, and the treasure most aligned with his Zhenyuanzi's Dao!

It was not merely a powerful magical artifact, but the manifestation of the "Way of the Great Earth," the perfect Dao marker and vessel on his path to the Primordial Chaos Dao Fruit.