Outrageous!!!

This Mystic Platform could ignore all extraordinary restraints beneath Great Emperor-level array diagrams in this world, forming a temporary spatial passage isolated from heaven and earth.

Once activated, it led directly to a former secret site of the Heavenly Mystic Ancient Clan tens of millions of miles away.

It could muddle the heavenly secrets, conceal one's aura, and make tracking extremely difficult.

During that period in his previous life, the other party would sometimes cross over here without a sound. As the master of this Drill Tower, he too would remain unaware unless he deliberately investigated.

If this Mystic Platform were combined with the Quasi-Emperor Array Diagram here and activated together, its extraordinary effects would rise to another level.

It would be enough to help him ignore the Profound Firmament Nine Truths Soul-Slaying Formation's special seal on souls before certain existences arrived.

"After the Archaic Era ended, were you and your clansmen buried as well in the strife and turmoil before the Ancient Era...?"

His thoughts drifted. Tan Lin's remnant soul paused atop the stone platform, and a rare trace of sorrow passed through his deep eyes.

When he awakened more than half a year ago.

Under that instance of [All-Cause Vision], he had actually already guessed that Tian Ling, the beauty from the Archaic Era, had passed away.

Because the Causal Line between them had vanished.

When a person died, their lamp went out, and causality naturally faded.

The cruelty of the cultivation world revealed itself once more.

Even a mighty Primordial Emperor Clan could not escape calamity after its Ancient Emperor underwent Dao Dissolution for endless years, eventually swallowed by the river of time and space.

And without the All-Causes Soul Pearl, he would have long since died completely.

Rustle...

The scroll painting on the wall behind him seemed to sense something. It moved without wind, then slowly settled once more.

"Are they leaving the Restricted Area? It is time to go... The bait has been swallowed. It is time to let the anglers move around a little."

Without lingering too deeply in the sorrow of an old friend's death, Tan Lin kept his gaze fixed on the changes in those Causal Lines that had suddenly brightened.

The next moment.

Whoosh!

The Deep Crimson Light Point in his palm flickered faintly.

The effect of [Inverted All-Causes Vision] was immediately pushed to its utmost limit, completely concealing every trace of causality he had left here.

Then, he activated the Mystic Platform.

Buzz!

Soon, the stone platform bloomed with a faint glow, and an invisible ripple spread through space. Tan Lin's remnant soul vanished from where he stood.

Whoosh...

Almost at the exact instant he left, two terrifying divine senses forcibly penetrated the Drill Tower from outside.

The two divine senses worked in perfect coordination, intertwining like a net cast over heaven and earth. They overlooked no corner of the tower and inspected all ten levels within a few breaths.

At last, they discovered this underground palace!

At the formation eye outside, the gray-robed Daoist lightly shook the jade bottle in his hand, completely merging the mother and child disks of the Profound Firmament Nine Truths Soul-Slaying Formation.

With him personally controlling it, the formation now displayed powers that entirely surpassed even its previous peak.

"He vanished? There is only a painting in that underground palace..."

The gray-robed Daoist frowned tightly.

"That fluctuation just now was unquestionably real. How did he escape under the formation's restraints? Since he could leave, why did he not do so earlier? Why wait until the instant before we left the Restricted Area? His timing was far too exquisite..."

"Heh, playing tricks..."

Beside him, the Undying Daoist wore a cold expression, golden light seeming to flicker in his eyes.

"Perhaps he merely evaded our detection and is still here?"

His divine sense swept out. Combined with some immortal eye technique, the Undying Daoist searched once more. Finally, his patience ran out, and he slowly said,

"Level this tower directly. If we cannot drag him out, let the billions of living beings within this tower be buried with him. That can be considered fitting for someone who was once a Dao Attainer..."

Arrogant!!!

Buried with him...

The moment the Undying Daoist finished speaking, Gong Xuan, the master of the Human Emperor Hall who stood nearby like a servant, suddenly felt his heart tighten.

"What are you afraid of?"

As though keenly catching Gong Xuan's emotional fluctuation, the Undying Daoist shot him a sidelong glance. Then his large hand lightly patted Gong Xuan's shoulder.

"Rest assured. You have been fairly obedient these years, and you still possess a little value..."

"Yes... yes... Thank you for your high regard, Your Majesty..."

Gong Xuan forced a smile onto his face. Before him, he did not dare even breathe too loudly.

Of these two, the former was merely a Dao Body of a Supreme Being, while this one was the Faith Body of that Heavenly Emperor. There was a difference between them.

At the very least, standing before the Undying Daoist truly terrified him to the extreme.

Clang...

At this moment, the gray-robed Daoist set down the mother disk, his brow furrowing even tighter.

Even with the aid of the formation, he had gained nothing.

"Are we truly going to massacre this place? We have yet to grasp the great secret on him. If we truly erase him, would that not be like drawing water with a bamboo basket—an empty effort?"

He glanced at the Undying Daoist and asked.

"Oh? Then what does Fellow Daoist think we should do?"

The Undying Daoist gave a smile that did not reach his eyes, utterly unconcerned.

In truth, the great secret on that "Human Emperor" was no longer so urgently needed by his true body.

After bathing in Ancient Emperor Blood and Great Emperor Blood time and again, continuously undergoing Nirvana, the tangible improvement in cultivation, Dao attainment, and combat power was no illusion. It proved that the Immortal Ascension Road his true body had embarked upon was viable.

Under such circumstances, even if he obtained the Human Emperor's supposed great secret, it would only satisfy his curiosity and add icing to the cake.

If he had not worried during the Archaic Era that his repeated bathing in Ancient Emperor Blood would be exposed, why would he have joined those stray cats and dogs from several Restricted Areas to divide the Human Emperor's Origin and flesh?

"Is Fellow Daoist's true body here? With the abilities of your true body, if he were to act, this time he would surely capture him with ease..."

Meeting the Undying Daoist's gaze, the gray-robed Daoist smiled as well and took the chance to probe him.

In this universe, even Supreme Beings were not omnipotent. Heaven and earth were so vast that seeking someone deliberately hiding away was like an ordinary person searching for a needle in the sea.

Since the end of the Archaic Era, he had actually remained deeply interested in the whereabouts of the Undying Heavenly Emperor.

As for the other party already being dead?

At any rate, he did not believe it.

"Heh, Fellow Daoist jests. Time is like a blade. Even beings as powerful as you and I can only endure it helplessly, can we not? Naturally, my true body also cut himself with a blade and sleeps within a heavenly treasure such as Immortal Source. That is precisely why we are needed to move about in his stead..."

The Undying Daoist replied calmly.

Hearing this, the gray-robed Daoist was only half-convinced. He then slowly said,

"Is that so? Then today's matter appears to be..."

Boom...

Suddenly, a heaven-shaking disturbance erupted somewhere in the northern Central Region and transmitted across the distance.

Though it had become extremely faint by the time it reached the Southern Region—so faint that ordinary people could not sense the slightest trace—it still made the expressions of the two men who had been chatting and laughing turn grave.

Because both knew exactly where the source of that disturbance was.

The Restricted Area... Undying Mountain!

Immediately afterward, a furious roar that shook heaven and earth crashed into the already unsettled "lake surface" of the Big Dipper like a massive boulder.

"Arrogant!!!"

The furious shout shook the nine heavens, spreading from Undying Mountain across the Big Dipper before rolling toward the high heavens and the Outer Domain.

Countless living beings trembled beneath that voice, living in constant fear.

"Hm? The Stone Emperor?"

Hearing it, the Undying Daoist raised his brow slightly. He was initially somewhat startled, then narrowed his eyes.

"That man truly has some nerve. We have only just left the Restricted Area, and he went in the opposite direction to Undying Mountain? He even drew upon those Dao traces. He is deliberately rubbing salt in our wounds..."

Before his words had even faded, he did not spare this place another glance. His figure flickered, and with a single step, he tore through the void and headed toward Undying Mountain.

It had been one thing when he did not know where the other party was.

But now that the other party was wandering about right outside Undying Mountain, he naturally would not let him go.

And judging from the speed of his reaction, he did not seem truly indifferent to the great secret on the Human Emperor.

At the core of the formation eye.

When Gong Xuan looked toward where the gray-robed Daoist had been, that place had already become empty as well. Yet the words he left behind echoed by Gong Xuan's ear.

"Do not lift the formation's blockade yet. We cannot rule out that this is his trick of making a feint in the east to strike in the west, using it to escape the formation's restraints..."

Time rewound several dozen breaths.

Tan Lin's remnant soul continuously leaped through the "passage" via the Mystic Platform.

In the blink of an eye, he crossed the boundary barrier between the Southern Region of Eastern Wasteland and the Central Region, appearing within a mysterious valley adjacent to the Demon Race Fengyou Tribe.

After arriving there, his remnant soul swiftly flew out of the valley and activated the All-Causes Soul Pearl again two or three hundred thousand miles away.

The crimson light point in his palm consumed energy at an accelerated rate.

Buzz...

[All Causes Barrier] activated!

Considering what he was about to do, he layered another barrier over his original [Inverted All-Causes Vision] state.

The crimson mist around him grew denser and denser, so dense that even he himself could no longer see his own remnant soul.

But this time, he did not merely intend to act with this wisp of remnant soul and incomplete primordial spirit.

He wanted to test whether his incomplete Great Saint-level primordial spirit could reconstruct a physical body barely capable of carrying him without Origin.

With that thought, he hesitated no longer.

Rumble!

The next instant.

He no longer held back in the slightest. A strand of intent connected with the Dao traces from his previous life, temporarily drawing down a portion of their great power to bless his incomplete primordial spirit.

Whoosh!

In an instant, threads of Dao laws, divine laws, and mystical laws manifested throughout heaven and earth. Under the effect of that great power, an immense amount of life essence was drawn in from all directions like a whale swallowing water.

Within the crimson mist, a mass of fleshly embryonic membrane gradually enlarged as it writhed, condensing from nothing amid the vast essence.

Half an instant later, limbs had grown from the membrane, followed by a head...

When a layer of skin covered that bloody, mangled shell, the spiritual energy and vital essence throughout the Central Region had fallen several levels compared to a moment before.

"What happened?!"

"Has heaven and earth undergone some great change? Why has the spiritual energy suddenly become so thin?"

"Pfft..."

"This is bad, the ancestor has suffered qi deviation..."

The Demon Race tribes scattered throughout the Central Region erupted into an uproar. Given their status and level, they could not investigate the true source of this upheaval.

And not only them. Even the gray-robed Daoist and the Undying Daoist in the Southern Region, separated by an entire region and screened and disrupted by the [All Causes Barrier], could not immediately notice or lock onto Tan Lin even when he risked connecting with those Dao traces.

After all, they were not Supreme Beings, much less the Heavenly Emperor himself.