Going Home! Mom, I Want to Go Home!

Lu Changsheng grew angrier the more he thought about it, and the more he thought, the more stifled he felt.

He had spent so many years painstakingly playing it safe in his lair, only to head out for a single project and get forced to pay a "toll" right when he was about to return home in glory.

I'm so pissed off, I could scatter your ashes to the winds!

Lu Changsheng stood up, cursing under his breath while frantically flapping his wings to clear away the grayish-brown powder on the ground.

Just then, a crisp "ding" sounded.

The tip of Lu Changsheng's wing seemed to have struck something hard.

He froze, stopping his flapping.

In the center of the pile of ashes drifting away in the wind, a fist-sized, earthy-yellow bead emitting an incredibly dense spiritual aura lay quietly.

The Purple Heaven Divine Lightning had destroyed the Old Earth Dragon's physical body and Primordial Spirit, but it had not destroyed this bead.

Because it was untainted by karma, it was the purest essence of earth origin, gestated within the Old Earth Dragon's body after it had slumbered beneath the Primordial Land for countless eons and devoured countless earth veins!

"This... this is..."

Lu Changsheng's eyes widened. He hurried over and snatched the earthy-yellow bead into his hand.

It was incredibly heavy.

Despite being only the size of a fist, it felt as if he were holding a towering mountain.

Inside the bead, a miniature earthy-yellow dragon shadow swam slowly, radiating the essence of a Profound Immortal to the extreme.

"Earth Dragon Pearl!"

The name popped into Lu Changsheng's mind instantly.

Feeling the surging earth origin within the bead, his face, which had been twisted in agony over the loss of his merit, instantly cleared up.

"What a treasure! This is an origin bead condensed from the lifelong essence of a Profound Immortal-level Earth Dragon!"

Lu Changsheng's voice trembled with excitement.

If the Half Beast Horn from before was a top-tier fire-attribute crafting material, then this Earth Dragon Pearl was the most perfect earth-attribute array core!

Earth gives birth to all things and carries them with its great virtue. Using earth-attribute origin to set up a defensive array was a match made in heaven!

That bit of merit from earlier... I suppose it wasn't too much of a loss.

Lu Changsheng's stingy nature automatically performed a cost-benefit analysis when faced with a real treasure.

Trading a tiny sliver of merit to kill a Profound Immortal and picking up an Earth Dragon Pearl for free—anywhere in the Primordial Land, that was a massive profit.

He happily pried open the Storage Jade Box and carefully placed the Earth Dragon Pearl next to the Half Beast Horn.

Fire and earth, two top-tier materials reflecting each other's brilliance, made Lu Changsheng feel truly at ease.

"I'm rich, I'm actually rich this time."

Lu Changsheng patted the bulging jade box and took a deep breath.

But soon, the smile on his face faded, replaced by an unprecedented sense of gravity and lingering fear.

He turned his head to look at the massive abyss left by the Old Earth Dragon's emergence, then at the ruined wasteland surrounding him.

"The outside world is too chaotic; it's simply no place for a bird."

Lu Changsheng muttered to himself.

He seriously reflected on his journey this time.

He had only traveled a little over ten thousand miles from his lair at the Nameless Low Mountain.

Ten thousand miles!

On the vast, boundless continent of the Primordial Land, ten thousand miles didn't even count as the doorstep of a beginner's village. A single fart from any great power would cover a range far greater than that.

Yet, in this short distance, he had first encountered a Sha Qi Pit and beast remains that took thousands of years to purify, and then, because he broke through to the True Immortal realm, he had drawn out a Profound Immortal Earth Dragon sleeping underground!

He had been a hair's breadth away from becoming the Earth Dragon's excrement!

If I go another hundred thousand miles, will I run head-first into a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal taking a bath? If I go a million miles, will a Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal use me as a snack for his wine?

The more Lu Changsheng thought about it, the more his heart raced.

The waters of this Primordial Land were too deep, and the traps were too many.

Opportunities and treasure hunts were things meant for the Children of Destiny.

For an incarnation of merit who survived by playing the victim and stacking defenses, running around in an era where a great catastrophe was brewing was simply asking for death.

"No more wandering! I wouldn't go out again even if you killed me!"

Lu Changsheng made a decisive choice.

"I've got the opportunity, and the materials are gathered. My top priority now is to get home immediately!"

He looked inward at his dantian, where his early-stage True Immortal mana had already begun to recover.

"As long as I make it back to my Nameless Low Mountain, with this Earth Dragon Pearl and that Half Beast Horn, I can definitely upgrade my one thousand eight hundred layers of arrays directly to three thousand!"

"Once I've layered on three thousand defenses, even if a group of Profound Immortals comes to tear my house down, I'll be able to sit inside, munching on melon seeds while watching them exhaust themselves to death!"

Having made up his mind, Lu Changsheng didn't want to stay in this place of trouble for even a second longer.

He immediately circulated his techniques, forcefully suppressing the aura that had become somewhat volatile after his recent brush with life-and-death danger.

Since his Breath-Concealing Array disk was gone, he used his mana to coat the surface of his body with layer after layer of isolation shields.

"Whoosh—"

Lu Changsheng transformed into a shadow skimming the ground. Not daring to fly, he directly cast the most basic Earth Escape technique and fled frantically in the direction of the Nameless Low Mountain.

"I've arrived... my turtle shell, my home!"

Lu Changsheng emerged from the ground, covered in dirt and looking disheveled.

Without bothering to brush the mud off his body, he practically scrambled and crawled toward the bare, unremarkable Nameless Low Mountain.

He skillfully tapped three times on a rock disguised as a piece of rotten wood and stomped twice on a patch of moss nearby.

"Rumble—"

Accompanied by a dull grinding sound, the heavy stone door slowly opened to both sides, revealing the dark and deep tunnel within.

In that instant, the air blowing out from the cave dwelling, carrying a hint of mold and the scent of dried-up spiritual energy, smelled ten thousand times sweeter to Lu Changsheng than the nectar and jade liquid of the Heavenly Court.

"Whoosh!"

Lu Changsheng turned into a blur and dashed straight into the cave.

"Bang!"

Before he could even steady his footing, he slammed the stone door shut with the fastest speed possible.

Immediately after, his hands moved like fluttering butterflies, frantically tapping away at the array hub behind the stone door.

"Spirit Gathering Array, activate!"

"Lesser Five Elements Inverted Illusion Array, activate!"

"Golden Light Killing Array, activate!"

"Gravity Mire Array, activate to the maximum!"

Following his low roars, the one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three layers of arrays surrounding the cave dwelling all surged into overload in an instant.

Colorful array light curtains lit up layer by layer on the surface of the low mountain, then quickly vanished into invisibility.

The entire Nameless Low Mountain disappeared completely from the sight of the Primordial Land once again, as if there had only ever been a barren flatland here.

After finishing all this, Lu Changsheng felt as if his bones had been drained of all strength. He slid down along the cold stone door and slumped onto the ground.

"Phew... I'm alive, I'm truly alive now."

He gasped for air, listening to the thunderous beating of his heart within his chest, his lips curling upward uncontrollably until it finally erupted into unbridled, wild laughter.

"Hahahaha! You damn loach! So what if you were a Profound Immortal? Didn't you still get blasted into dust by the Great Dao Divine Lightning!"

"I am the final winner!"