No Way Back-Climb the Heavenly Ladder!

With a crack that set teeth on edge, the black iron mace in the Night Patrol Wandering Deity's hand shattered into fragments beneath the Ridge Vein Mountain God's massive palm, wrapped in five-colored Dao radiance. That mace had once struck fear into countless examinees and symbolized the Divine Authority to enforce the night ban.

For the first time, unmistakably human shock appeared in the deity's lifeless double pupils.

It could not understand.

How had the shell that could only take a beating moments ago suddenly gained the terrifying strength to crush a divine weapon?

Then something even more horrifying happened.

The shattered black iron fragments did not fall. As though caught by an invisible force, they floated around the Mountain God's giant palm, unable to escape.

Chu Bai stood atop the Underground Palace's Sacrificial Altar. The Cosmic Cycle Wheel in his dantian spun wildly, emitting a low rumble like a millstone grinding grain.

"Gather!"

Chu Bai closed his fingers around empty air.

The fragments, steeped in the deity's divine Killing Intent, were instantly swept into the phantom five-colored wheel.

The Cosmic Cycle Wheel set the five phases in motion, an endless cycle of renewal. It could also—refine anything!

That was the domineering power of a Superior Dao Foundation. Beneath the five-phase millstone, the deity's resentment and Killing Intent within the fragments were ground away in an instant. The fragments were forcibly transformed into the purest Geng Metal Qi, which flowed back into the divine body's right arm.

As the stone arm absorbed the Geng Metal Qi, it took on a cold metallic sheen, as though clad in an indestructible divine-metal gauntlet.

"So this is Foundation Establishment..."

Chu Bai felt the spiritual energy within him. Though he had yet to master Spell Arts of the same realm, its very nature had