The spatial vortex slowly closed behind them, shutting out all the clamor and horrified gazes from the outside world.
Then a scorching wind struck their faces.
Before Mu Chen and the three women lay an immense lake of fiery-red magma.
They were standing on a massive stone platform within the magma lake.
Lotuses floated here and there amid the slowly churning, viscous crimson magma.
They were fiery red throughout, crystalline and translucent, as though carved from red jade.
A steady flame burned at the heart of each lotus. Within its core, lotus seeds were faintly visible, swaying gently with the flames and emitting pure, mild fluctuations of fire spiritual energy.
Flame spirit lotuses were rather rare natural treasures. Their seeds, condensed from exceptionally pure fire spiritual energy between heaven and earth, possessed miraculous effects that tempered the muscles and bones and refined essence blood, greatly benefiting cultivation.
They were useless to Mu Chen now, but still quite useful to the three women, especially Tang Qian'er.
"The White Dragon Spirit Treasury is fairly vast. Go explore on your own first. I'll head to the central area to take care of a few things." As Mu Chen spoke, he raised his hand, pressed his index and middle fingers together, and lightly pointed into the air.
Three motes of light spilled from his fingertips, swift as lightning, and sank into the three women's brows.
"I've left Spirit Seals with you," Mu Chen explained. "If you encounter danger you can't withstand, activate them with a thought, and you can summon my spiritual avatar to protect you."
Luo Li answered with a faint smile, while Tang Qian'er nodded vigorously. Wen Qingxuan lifted her chin slightly and gave a soft huff. "Don't keep us waiting too long."
Without another word, Mu Chen vanished from the stone platform like a wisp of smoke and headed toward the center of the Spirit Treasury.
His targets were clear: the White Dragon Spirit Pearl and the Great Sumeru Demon Pillar.
Before long, Mu Chen reached his destination, a black basin roughly a hundred thousand feet across.
Black stone pillars densely covered the entire basin floor, each standing a full ten thousand feet tall.
Mu Chen raised his right hand. With a thought, ocean-vast chaos spiritual energy erupted from his palm!
The spiritual energy left his hand and transformed into a palm imprint ten thousand feet across!
Chaos Great Hand Seal!
Crack... crack, crack...
A teeth-grating sound of shattering rang out.
The seal left by the White Dragon Supreme was broken outright!
Even alive, he could never have been Mu Chen's match, much less dead.
Mu Chen descended into the center of the area, where a pillar utterly unlike the others stood.
It was a black stone pillar stained with endless blood. Seemingly boundless demonic patterns writhed across its surface, and deep claw marks were carved into it, making the pillar look as though it were about to shatter.
The Great Sumeru Demon Pillar!
In the air roughly thirty feet above the top of the Great Sumeru Demon Pillar, which radiated towering baleful energy, a point of soft, pure white light floated silently.
It was a spiritual pearl about the size of an infant's head.
The pearl was lustrous white throughout, warm and smooth as jade. Milky clouds seemed to drift slowly within it, occasionally gathering into tiny dragon shapes that wound and swam about.
Mu Chen raised his hand and made a grasping motion toward the White Dragon Spirit Pearl, drawing it into his palm.
After putting the White Dragon Spirit Pearl into his Mustard Seed Bracelet, he turned his gaze toward the Great Sumeru Demon Pillar and its sky-piercing baleful energy.
As though sensing that the White Dragon Spirit Pearl had been taken away, leaving it without balance or restraint, the Great Sumeru Demon Pillar suddenly shuddered!
The countless hideous claw marks on its surface simultaneously lit up with blood-dark demonic patterns, seemingly coming alive and transforming into the shrieks of hundreds of millions of savage souls and vengeful spirits!
The air grew thick and heavy, and the temperature plunged. A surging sea of blood spread outward, as though the barren desert had become the deepest hell in an instant!
Yet when that baleful tide, powerful enough to change the face of mountains and rivers, reached three feet in front of Mu Chen, it struck what seemed to be an utterly impassable barrier, collapsed with a thunderous crash, and rolled back!
The emperor's fallen double pupils hovered quietly in his sea of consciousness, shedding clear radiance. No evil could invade; all baleful forces recoiled.
His innate chaos saint body dao embryo possessed blood and vital energy like a blazing furnace, forming a world of its own. Chaos energy circulated within it, capable of transforming all things.
How could mere masterless baleful energy shake him in the slightest?
He had not even put up any defenses. His inherent stature and foundation alone ensured that the baleful energy erupting from the Great Sumeru Demon Pillar could not affect him at all.
"An ancient weapon of destruction... doesn't seem as powerful as I imagined." Mu Chen stood quietly where he was, not even the hem of his robes stirring.
He had originally intended to use the Great Sumeru Pillar as the foundation for refining a sacred artifact of his own. Now, it seemed this thing was nowhere near good enough. At most, it could serve as a temporary weapon.
Chaos spiritual energy surged out, forming a solid hand that gently pressed down on the restless Great Sumeru Demon Pillar.
In an instant, the demon pillar stopped trembling, and its towering baleful energy was suppressed and tamed outright.
With a thought, Mu Chen grasped the pillar, lifted it lightly, and hefted it to test its weight.
"It feels pretty good in the hand. I could nurture and refine it for a while and see how it turns out."
After drawing the Great Sumeru Demon Pillar into his Supreme Sea to nurture it, Mu Chen stretched lazily.
With the greatest opportunity at the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy now in hand, it was time to consider cultivating a Supreme Dharma Body and prepare to head to the Tianluo Continent.
He had long since obtained the cultivation method for the Great Sun Undying Body. His blood was no worse than a Heavenly Sovereign's-strictly speaking, it ought to far surpass theirs!
After some deductions and research, Mu Chen planned to replace the spiritual treasures needed to cultivate the Great Sun Undying Body with chaos energy. He had also improved parts of the method to make this Supreme Dharma Body better suited to his constitution!
That being the case, calling it the Great Sun Undying Body was no longer quite appropriate. It ought to be called the primordial undying body.
Everything is ready; all that's missing is supreme spirit liquid!
I'll still have to ask Senior Bei Ming to help me out!
Outside the White Dragon Spirit Treasury, beside the lake encircled by five peaks, the crowd continued to grow.
Several black-robed figures stood silently on a protruding boulder by the lakeshore, utterly out of place amid the restless crowd around them.
A cold, sinister aura permeated their bodies, and their spiritual energy fluctuations were obscure yet powerful. Astonishingly, several of those at the front had reached the three heavens realm!
"Has our lord not arrived yet?" a gaunt-faced, black-robed old man asked quietly, his voice hoarse.
"Soon," another answered, lifting his head to glance at the sky. "Let's hope that unknown Supreme takes a little longer to come out..."
They belonged to the Dragon Demon Palace, a faction whose very name struck terror across the Northern Heavens Continent, and a mortal enemy of the Northern Heavens Spiritual Academy.
Bai Xuan's death had thrown all the Dragon Demon Palace's plans into disarray, sending its entire upper echelon into a fury!
With the supreme treasure hidden by the White Dragon Supreme at stake, the Black Dragon Venerable had prepared to come in person.
A day passed, and the White Dragon Spirit Treasury opened wide!
Just as everyone by the lake scrambled to rush into the Spirit Treasury, the distant sky suddenly darkened.
"What's... that?!"
Countless figures flying toward the Spirit Treasury abruptly halted and turned back in horror.
Those with weaker cultivation fell straight out of the air, their faces deathly pale and their breathing strained.
"A Supreme's pressure! Another Supreme expert!"
The Black Dragon Supreme had arrived!
Before you continue