As the battle progressed, Zhu Yin gradually drew closer to that enormous Immortal Island.
A hundred years later, this region had long become a sea of blood, its killing intent soaring to the heavens. The Demon Clan's last Great Principle powerhouse had also left his post and headed to the battlefield. Zhu Yin took the opportunity to slip onto the island.
This Immortal Island covered a vast area, spanning tens of millions of li. It was a genuine Upper-grade Grotto-heaven Blessed Land. Though it had endured the Immortal-Demon War and all its buildings had been destroyed, boundless spiritual energy and treasures still remained.
Only Grand Unity-level immortals remained on the island now, unable to see through Zhu Yin's movements. He wandered through every part of the island, visiting the Spirit Medicine Garden, Treasure Hall, Alchemy Pavilion...
He did not take everything, only selecting a portion. This method of not taking it all made suspicion easier to avoid. Even if someone noticed that some resources were missing, they would only assume they had been moved before the battle, or that someone had stolen from their own post.
The Demon Clan would suspect that the Immortal Court had moved the treasures in advance, or that someone within their ranks had caused trouble;
The Witch Clan, meanwhile, would suspect the Demon Clan of playing tricks themselves.
For safety's sake, Zhu Yin had refined the Heavenly Secrets Compass he had obtained from Ancestor Xuanxin a hundred years ago. This treasure could disrupt the heavenly secrets and truly conceal him from prying eyes.
Even if someone tried to divine the heavenly secrets, at most they would trace it back to Ancestor Xuanxin. Once he returned to the Western Lands, he intended to ask his master and senior uncle to act and further conceal his aura.
Even if big shots like Dijun and Taiyi had no time to care about such trivial matters, he still had to ensure nothing could go wrong.
The Immortal Island's resources truly were astonishing. After making just one round, Zhu Yin had made a tremendous profit.
Next, he quietly visited several other medium-sized Immortal Islands and swept through each one. Only after gathering quite a few Heaven and Earth Treasures did he swiftly withdraw.
This haul had already far exceeded his expectations. Staying any longer would only invite complications.
More importantly, his Dao Heart had finally calmed down.
After leaving the Immortal Islands, Zhu Yin did not immediately return to the Western Lands.
He first sent a message to his honest senior uncle on Mount Sumeru, asking him to secretly help conceal him.
As for his lively and unruly master, he was most likely still causing a stir in the Eastern Sea and could not return for the time being.
After making the arrangements, he found a concealed cave and began sorting through the spoils left behind by Ancestor Xuanxin.
Ancestor Xuanxin had indeed been cunning. Not only had he possessed several powerful spiritual treasures, but he also had a secret space hidden within his turtle shell. It was vast and filled with countless cultivation resources.
This had been the escape route Ancestor Xuanxin had prepared long ago. He had foreseen disaster in the Western Sea and had made plans to flee in advance.
Yet before he could escape, he ran into Zhu Yin and was taken down in a single move, leaving everything to someone else for nothing.
Thinking back on it, Zhu Yin could not help laughing bitterly.
He had once used the Heavenly Secrets Compass to conceal the heavenly secrets and fabricate the illusion that Ancestor Xuanxin had stolen from his own post. Yet by a strange twist of fate, it had actually become the truth.
Well, that worked out nicely. Even if Dijun truly wanted to divine who had touched the resources, he could only trace it back to Ancestor Xuanxin... after all, he really had done it.
At last, while searching through the treasures, Zhu Yin's gaze fell upon something... His expression shifted slightly. He had clearly found an extraordinary treasure...
While sorting through the treasures left behind by Ancestor Xuanxin, Zhu Yin unexpectedly discovered an egg from a divine bird.
This egg had originally belonged to an incomparably rare divine bird. Its feathers were dazzling and beautiful, its bearing noble and elegant, and its strength formidable. Back when Ancestor Xuanxin had merely been a Golden Immortal, this divine bird had already been a Great Principle Golden Immortal.
Back then, when Ancestor Xuanxin had followed the Dragon Clan into battle against the Phoenix Clan, this divine bird often drew his attention. Whenever it appeared, sunlight illuminated the surroundings, warm and peaceful. It was like the rising sun, inspiring reverence in all who saw it.
During the Three Clans War, after slaying a Dragon Clan powerhouse, the divine bird flew eastward to Eastern Mountain, where it waited quietly for over a thousand years.
After the war ended and heaven and earth returned to order, the divine bird let out a mournful cry beneath the first ray of dawn and finally died.
Before its death, it left behind an egg—the very divine bird egg Ancestor Xuanxin had found.
At the time, Ancestor Xuanxin had been severely wounded and on the verge of death. With no other choice, he hid the egg inside his turtle shell and slowly nurtured it.
Although he preserved the egg's vitality, their attributes clashed... the turtle shell belonged to water, while the divine bird egg belonged to fire. That conflict instead damaged its origin.
Later, Ancestor Xuanxin continuously searched for fire-attributed treasures to remedy the damage. However, because he had missed the best time for hatching, the egg had been born with an inherent flaw.
There were two ways to successfully hatch this divine bird egg:
One was to nourish it with a massive amount of Three Lights Divine Water;
The other was to borrow a branch from the legendary Fusang Divine Tree to replenish its innate origin.
But of these two items, one was exceedingly rare, while the other belonged to Dijun. Neither could be obtained for now.
Thus, Ancestor Xuanxin could only continue nurturing it slowly and wait for an opportunity.
Several months later, Zhu Yin finished inventorying the treasures and sent off the last remnant soul of Ancestor Xuanxin.
Just as he stepped out of the cave, clouds suddenly churned and winds rose across the horizon. A vast divine power descended as a goat-like divine beast... Bai Ze, riding auspicious clouds, arrived.
Bai Ze had already broken through to become a Quasi-Sage. He had appeared in person to drive the Witch Clan out of the Western Sea.
Immediately afterward, an even more powerful aura descended from the heavens. A terrifying being radiating golden light arrived... Roushou, the Ancestral Witch of Metal, had appeared!
This being had a human face and tiger's body, wings upon his back, golden scales covering his entire form, fire dragons beneath his feet, and golden snakes hanging from his ears. His pressure overwhelmed heaven and earth.
He had also come for the Western Sea, intending to take control of it.
On one side was a Quasi-Sage, and on the other an Ancestral Witch!
Cold sweat immediately broke out across Zhu Yin's back. He secretly rejoiced that he had left in advance and had not been blinded by greed. Otherwise, his identity might have been exposed, drawing the attention of these two giants.
He did not linger and turned to leave the Western Sea.
After crossing the barrier between heaven and earth, the spiritual energy sharply declined, yet he felt exceptionally relaxed, as though he had swum out of the sea and returned to a familiar little river.
After returning to Mount Sumeru, Zhu Yin first paid his respects to Daoist Jieyin. After exchanging a few words with the two Boy Attendants, he rode away on a ray of light and returned to Spirit Platform Mountain.
Having been away for thousands of years, Spirit Platform Mountain had become even more spiritually vibrant and lush, brimming with life throughout its forests. Even another spirit land nearby had begun attracting living beings, most of them Mysterious Immortal cultivators.
That was the reward for repairing earth veins. Whoever repaired an earth vein could choose a mountain peak and establish a Dao Field there, first come, first served.
Blessed Goodness Spirit Land itself was not yet particularly lively, however. Repairing earth veins took too much time, and ordinary Mysterious Immortals generally needed five thousand years.
Zhu Yin had expected this long ago and was not in a hurry. He believed that, with time, it would one day flourish.
The edge of the spirit land had become livelier, though. The living beings had spontaneously organized a small gathering held once every hundred years, where they exchanged spiritual items.
Zhu Yin quietly blended in, altering his appearance and observing for a long while.
Although most of the items were ordinary spiritual materials, he saw hope and vitality among them. A few new ideas also emerged in his mind, though he was not in a hurry to put them into action.
After returning to his Dao Field, he rested properly for several years to restore his spirits.
Afterward, he strolled through the mountains and forests, observing the changes in the spirit land.
Nourished by the Upper-Grade Innate Spiritual Root, the Enlightenment Tea Tree, the spiritual energy of Spirit Platform Mountain grew ever denser, like an immortal realm.
Sitting within a pavilion and sipping spiritual tea, he summoned the two Boy Attendants and the White Tiger, Jin Tu.
"Congratulations on your return, Master!"
The Boy Attendants beamed with delight, while the White Tiger acted especially affectionate, desperately rubbing against Zhu Yin.
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