Willow Deity's Dharma Form

"Old man, you've committed a crime. Come with me."

The heroic-looking youth pushed through the crowd, staring at the two of them with a cold sneer.

"Eh? You're that..."

Lord Bird instinctively looked up, his pupils faintly weaving with countless silver runes. His expression shifted, revealing extreme astonishment.

Just as Lord Bird was about to spit out the word that followed, Lord Essence Jade, standing at his side, bumped into him without a trace.

"Haha, everyone, I just remembered an urgent matter at home. Business ends here for today; we'll meet at our usual spot tomorrow."

Lord Bird slapped his forehead as if recalling something vital. With nimble hands and feet, he and Lord Essence Jade packed up their stall, grabbed Little Shi, and took off running.

The two old men and the boy avoided the crowd, stopping in a secluded area.

"You two were actually able to see through the Zhu Yan Precious Technique I cast at a glance. Even if a full-grown pure-blooded creature came, I'd still have a thirty percent chance of fooling them. It seems your identities aren't simple at all."

Shi Hao crossed his arms, looking the two sleazy old men up and down before saying leisurely, "Tell me, you two wouldn't happen to be the true masters of the Void God Realm, would you?"

"Not me, I didn't, don't talk nonsense!"

Lord Bird and Lord Essence Jade shook their heads in unison, looking incredibly nervous.

"Mm, so it seems you are."

Shi Hao, wearing an 'as I thought' expression, took out a complete page of the Primordial Bronze Book and handed it over. "I've obtained the bronze book; I want to exchange it for a peerless precious technique."

"So, you really are the one who broke the extreme records ten times in a single day and created a peerless myth."

The frivolous look on Lord Bird's face vanished instantly, as if it had never been there.

After taking the Primordial Bronze Book and verifying its authenticity, Lord Bird spoke tentatively, "We don't have any peerless precious techniques. How about we give you an ultimate sacred ancient artifact instead? I guarantee it's no worse than the one Shi Yi, the one with the double pupils, obtained a while back."

"No, you have it. I want the True Phoenix Precious Technique."

Shi Hao looked at the two slippery, cunning men and smiled meaningfully.

"Kid, who exactly are you?!"

Lord Bird and Lord Essence Jade exchanged a glance, their expressions more solemn than ever before.

"Alright, you might as well just hand over the True Phoenix Precious Technique honestly. Even if you two are the exalted masters of the Void God Realm, you still have to follow certain rules."

Shi Hao didn't answer them, continuing instead.

"Little Shi Hao, it's not that we won't give you the True Phoenix Precious Technique, but the place where it's stored is extremely troublesome. If we get too close, our minds are affected; we drift between clarity and confusion, as if falling into an endless darkness."

"So, this old man advises you to quit while you're ahead and just take a sacred ancient artifact and leave."

Lord Bird stroked the Five-Colored Bird on his left shoulder, looking somewhat agitated.

"It's fine. Take me there, and I'll have my own way of dealing with it."

Shi Hao was stubborn, naturally insisting on his choice.

"Old man, don't mind him. Just take him there; it's best if he dies there."

The hot-tempered Lord Essence Jade was also angry. He grabbed Shi Hao and fled toward the depths of the Void God Realm, tearing through layers of the void at the speed of light.

Lord Bird sighed softly and took flight to follow.

Stepping across endless stone stairs that stretched to the edge of the void, the three of them landed in a vast, ancient black palace.

Deep within the gloomy, desolate palace stood rows of stone sculptures bound by dense chains of order. Around each sculpture, a dozen clay pots were arranged in a regular pattern, their mouths covered by divine scripts.

Both the stone sculptures and the pots on the ground were shrouded in faint black mist, representing countless omens of the eerie and ominous—dangerous to the extreme.

"That black mist is the source of what corrupted you, isn't it?"

Shi Hao frowned slightly and took two steps back. He felt as if he were being watched by the most dangerous primordial beast in the world, his scalp tingling.

The power of darkness capable of infecting creatures across the entire foreign realm was truly terrifying!

"It's this damned stuff. You must not let it touch you."

Lord Bird looked at the black mist with lingering fear and pursed his lips. "See that? The Phoenix Bone inscribed with the True Phoenix Precious Technique is right in the center. Are you confident you can fight your way through and return safely after grabbing that bone?"

A crimson Phoenix Bone floated quietly in the center of the stone statues, releasing divine phoenix runes that continuously purified the encroaching eerie black mist.

"I can't, but just because I can't doesn't mean others can't."

Shi Hao shook his head, then carefully took a golden willow twig from his robes and bowed respectfully. "Willow Deity, descend!"

"Willow Deity? Which ancient sacred being is this?"

Lord Bird and Lord Essence Jade muttered in unison, looking at each other in confusion.

"Boom!"

In an instant, the golden willow twig erupted with brilliant light.

A graceful, peerless figure stepped out from the golden twig.

The divine body was ethereal and flawless, but the face was exceptionally blurred, as if covered by a mysterious veil. Anyone who looked at it would only find their thoughts becoming more and more muddled until they forgot it entirely.

Countless divine flames swirled around Him, each containing the phantom of a deity sitting in meditation, constantly kowtowing and paying homage to the hazy figure at the center, as if He were the one and only existence between heaven and earth, eternal and immortal.

One flame, one divine realm; three thousand kingdoms of gods came to pay their respects!

"Why do you seek Me?"

The slender figure stepping forth from the golden willow branches glowed, and a serene ripple emanated from within the hazy halo.

"Mother of mercy, this dame is so beautiful that even I'm starting to feel moved."

At this moment, an inadvertent mutter echoed through the desolate hall.

"Hmm?"

The divine being, who looked down upon the ages, let out a soft hum that exploded like thunder in the ears of the two old scoundrels, causing the blood within their bodies to churn violently.

"Scared, I'm scared."

Lord Bird, with his loose tongue, let out a muffled groan and shrank his head. After wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth, he quickly turned timid.

"Old man, don't you think this dame... this person looks a bit familiar?"

"Hiss, now that you mention it, she does look familiar. But I don't know what's wrong with my brain; it's like it's covered by a thin veil. I clearly have an impression, but for the life of me, I can't remember who He is. My head is killing me!"

The two old men huddled in the corner, whispering to each other from time to time.

After punishing the two of them slightly, the white-robed deity transformed from Willow Deity quickly had His gaze drawn to the strange sights in the depths of the ancient hall.

Eerie stone statues, chilling earthen jars, and the black mist symbolizing ominousness all entered the field of vision of the white-robed deity.

"The various Immortal Kings defeated in the Ancient Immortal era, along with their many war marshals and generals—polluted by the power of darkness, their Primordial Spirits are all imprisoned here."

"So that's it. The so-called Eight Regions are a cage, yet I never expected them to be the ones imprisoned. Using the entire Void God Realm as a Heavenly Prison to suppress them—what a grand scheme. Could this be the plotting of Qi Yu and the other old Immortal Kings who have been hiding in the Immortal Domain all this time..."

The halo outside the white-robed deity shifted constantly, revealing the turmoil within His heart.