The broken ends of the two Earth Veins fit together perfectly.
Nourished by innate earth spiritual energy, the severed gap began to heal and reconnect at a speed visible to the naked eye.
The Earth Vein circuit, stagnant for countless ages, was finally unblocked once more!
A gentle surge of Earth Vein energy shot into the sky, dispelling the last trace of gloom lingering across the surrounding hundreds of miles.
As the Earth Vein energy surged skyward,
the soil, once grayed and lifeless after years of baleful energy eating away at it, began to brim with vitality at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Tiny flecks of green sprouted from cracks in the parched rocks. They were the hardiest, most ordinary weeds in the Primordial Land. Revitalized by the pure Earth Vein, they began to grow like mad.
Lu Changsheng gasped for breath. His legs gave way, and he collapsed onto the ground, sprawled out like a starfish.
Exhausted.
It wasn't just his magic power that had run dry. After thousands of years of keeping his soul wound taut, the sudden release left him utterly drained.
"I finally got the damn job done."
Lu Changsheng gazed up at the sky, no longer shrouded in gray, and couldn't stop the corners of his mouth from rising.
He didn't get up right away. He just lay there.
First, he used his mind to control the formation and slowly brought over the crystalline Beast Horn hovering in midair. It had been stripped of every layer of its destructive shell, leaving only the pure source of fire.
"Clunk."
The heavy Beast Horn landed beside Lu Changsheng. Even after being washed by the Earth Vein energy, its surface still radiated astonishing heat.
Lu Changsheng turned his head and cautiously reached out with the tip of one wing, touching the translucent, dark-red surface.
There was no backlash, no destructive will that made his soul tremble.
Only a pure, innate Pure Yang Fire, so refined that it seemed to make every pore in his body relax.
"Treasure! This is absolutely top-grade material for refining artifacts!"
Lu Changsheng's eyes instantly became two sparkling spirit stones.
He ran his hands over the Beast Horn, top to bottom, practically drooling.
"If I gave this to some powerful expert who knows artifact refining, they could at the very least make the base for a mid-grade... no, even a high-grade Innate Spirit Treasure!"
"This one bone is worth ten thousand years of picking up junk on Nameless Low Mountain!"
He hurriedly opened the Storage Jade Box hanging around his neck and shoved the hodgepodge of scrap metal to one side,
making room in the very center. Then, as carefully as if he were cradling an ancestral tablet, he tucked the Beast Horn inside.
"I'm rich, I'm rich! Just this material alone makes those five thousand five hundred years of hard labor worthwhile."
Lu Changsheng patted the Jade Casket with satisfaction.
But that was only a little extra.
The real prize was in the sky.
After putting away the Beast Horn, Lu Changsheng struggled to sit up. He raised his head and stared unblinkingly at the gradually clearing sky above him.
Going by the scraps of common knowledge about the Primordial Land in his mind,
repairing the Earth Veins and purging the lingering poison of Fierce Beasts was a great deed that mended the flaws in Heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth would sense it, and the Heavenly Dao couldn't possibly turn a blind eye.
Sure enough.
Lu Changsheng waited less than half an incense stick's time.
"Vmmm—"
A grand, distant heavenly note, as if it had crossed over from the ancient past, echoed across the Primordial Land for a hundred thousand miles.
It wasn't thunder, nor the sonic boom of a battle between powerful experts.
It was a great Dao resonance that filled every living being with awe and serenity, deep in their souls.
Then,
the sky above Lu Changsheng suddenly roiled with dazzling golden clouds.
At first, the clouds were no bigger than a tabletop. But within a few breaths, they expanded wildly.
Ten miles, a hundred miles, five hundred miles...
Golden auspicious clouds stretched across nearly a thousand miles, illuminating this once-dim corner of the Primordial Land as bright as day!
There was no raging thunder among the clouds, only boundless peace and holiness.
It was Heavenly Dao Merit, utterly pure and condensed into solid form!
"Holy crap!"
Lu Changsheng looked at the golden clouds in the sky, brighter than several thousand suns. Instead of leaping up in excitement, his face turned green with fright.
"Lord Heavenly Dao, if you're paying me, just pay me! What's with all the fanfare?!"
Lu Changsheng jumped around in a panic.
He was a man of the Dao of Cowardice!
The last thing he wanted was to draw attention!
The golden glow of merit spanning a thousand miles was practically a ten-thousand-watt lightbulb in the dead of night.
Any Daluo Golden Immortal or Primordial Unity Golden Immortal passing nearby could see it clearly from tens of millions of miles away.
"Don't flaunt your wealth! If this draws those red-eyed Innate Divine Beings over, and they find a weakling like me, only at the Heavenly Immortal level, guarding such a huge pile of merit, how am I supposed to survive?!"
Lu Changsheng was sweating buckets.
Ignoring his weakened state, he charged like a madman toward the formation nodes nearby, which were on the verge of shutting down after exhausting their spiritual energy.
"Concealment formation! Illusion formation! All of you, activate! Block out that light!"
He bit the tip of his tongue and spat mouthful after mouthful of blood essence onto the battered formation plates as if it cost him nothing.
The formations, which had been on the verge of becoming scrap, were forcibly activated by his desperate resolve.
Layer upon layer of white mist, illusions, and black miasma surged into the sky, trying to hide the dazzling golden clouds of merit overhead.
But it was like an ant trying to stop a chariot.
How could these low-grade formations, cobbled together from junk, possibly block the miraculous phenomenon of merit bestowed by the Heavenly Dao?
The moment the white mist touched the golden light, it vanished without a trace, like snowflakes falling into boiling water.
"I can't stop it..."
Lu Changsheng dropped onto his bottom, his face ashen.
Just then, the thousand-mile expanse of golden clouds finally finished gathering their power.
"Boom!"
They didn't slowly drift down, as he had imagined.
The vast clouds transformed in midair into a golden pillar of light over ten zhang wide. Carrying an irresistible, holy pressure, it crashed down like a golden waterfall.
And the target directly beneath that waterfall was Lu Changsheng.
"I'm done for. Now I'm a sitting duck."
Lu Changsheng closed his eyes and simply spread his arms in an embracing gesture.
"Come on! If I can't hide it, then I'll hurry up and absorb as much as I can! Once I've absorbed it, I'll burrow underground and run!"
The next instant,
the golden waterfall of merit crashed over Lu Changsheng.
There was none of the impact he'd expected.
The vast, suffocating mass of Heavenly Dao Merit touched Lu Changsheng's body—
and, as if it had found a long-lost relative, flowed into him with utter gentleness and ease, pouring through all 108,000 pores and flooding his body.
"Ah—"
Lu Changsheng threw back his head and let out an uncontrollable, drawn-out cry.
Comfortable!
So damn comfortable!
Before you continue