The moment Fang Han tapped the Taibai Star Stone, his immense mana shattered it from within.
White-gold radiance—pure, razor-sharp metal essence—flooded out like a tidal wave. Anything that touched this brilliance would be minced to dust; even blades and armor would be severed clean through.
But when Fang Han opened his mouth, that lethal light surged into him as though swallowed by an endless sea.
Inside his body, the wild metallic essence was refined, melted down, and shaped into countless white-gold serpents. The serpents linked tail to head, weaving themselves into a vast formation.
Within that formation, two figures gradually materialized: one male, one female—two imperial silhouettes.
The White Emperor.
The Golden Emperor.
Once the twin emperors fully coalesced, the entire sea of metal essence suddenly bowed to their authority and poured obediently into Fang Han's mouth. Bit by bit, all that power condensed into formation after formation, just as described in the cultivation method of the White Emperor and Golden Emperor Slash.
To cultivate this art, he needed endless Geng-Metal energy. Normally, that meant harvesting metal-rich mines for years—sometimes decades—draining entire mineral veins before searching for new ones. A tedious, time-consuming, inefficient process.
But now, this single Taibai Star Stone contained more metal essence than several entire mountain mines combined. It was enough to let Fang Han complete the foundation of the White-Gold Slash in one stroke.
If he sold this Star Stone at the Wandering Seas Market, no one could estimate its worth. For sword sects—Sky-Piercing Sword Sect, Sun-Moon Blade Sect, Dan-Cauldron Sword Hall—this was priceless treasure. A single elder with this stone could forge a top-grade flying sword, even an unmatched one. With one such blade, they could roam the world with unparalleled lethality.
"White Emperor, Golden Emperor, Essence of Metal, spirit eternal…"
The chant echoed from Fang Han's throat as the last of the metal essence became a grand formation.
Inside the formation, beside the two emperors standing in solemn command, new figures emerged: white tigers, golden dragons, steel giants, and spectral weapons—blades, spears, halberds—everything that symbolized slaughter.
When the gold energy finally converged, the formation solidified. For an instant, the air trembled with the sounds of war: iron clashing, hooves thundering, legions roaring in a tide of killing intent.
Metal, among the Five Elements, embodied killing.
Thus metal-based divine abilities were the sharpest, fastest to end life.
Even the Yuhua Sect's supreme master preferred gold-based arts for instant kill techniques.
"Metal returns to the lungs…"
With the final formation cast, Fang Han absorbed the entire ocean of metal essence into his lungs. His lung lobes turned white-gold—impossibly tough—and every breath he exhaled carried a pale golden mist, filled with refined killing will. Even his eyes flickered with metallic light.
He exhaled once, sharply.
Shhht!
The blue-stone floor split into dozens of deep grooves—clean, smooth cuts, several feet deep, as though carved by invisible flying swords.
Only now did Fang Han grasp the true force of the White Emperor and Golden Emperor Slash. He no longer needed any flying sword.
This art was the perfect blade.
One breath was deadlier than a sword strike.
"It's a pity," Fang Han mused, "that the Blood Sky Demon Blade evolved into a Dao-artifact. If I could've devoured it, the White-Gold Slash would have reached terrifying heights."
He dismissed the thought and turned to the next treasure: the Myriad-Layered Water Crystal—a pure water-element artifact containing ten thousand forms of water qi, each unimaginably heavy and dense. A treasure equal in rarity to the Taibai Star Stone.
He tapped it, and layers of crystalline water qi poured out. Fang Han drew them in, refined them into a formation, and let them settle between his kidneys.
Metal nourishes the lungs.
Water nourishes the kidneys.
With gold in his lungs and water in his kidneys, his entire body transformed yet again. He grew taller—nearly nine feet now—his proportions perfect, his hair black with faint streaks of white-gold, his presence ethereal like an immortal emerging from mist.
He circulated his Five Elements slightly, and threads of vital essence washed through his flesh, refining it anew. All hidden injuries from the Life-Shortening Demon Pill healed instantly, and his lifespan increased again.
Now, he had already cultivated:
Red Emperor Fire Sovereign Qi – minor completionBlack Emperor Water Fist – newly masteredWhite Emperor–Golden Emperor Slash – initial masteryGreen Emperor Wood Monarch Art – perfected
Only the Yellow Emperor Earth Dao remained unaccomplished. He would need an earth-element treasure—or the Five-Element Spirit Root—to complete the Five Emperors Great Demon Art.
"To reach the Unity Stage of the Heaven-Human Realm, I must gather all Five Elements. Finding the Five-Element Spirit Root is imperative."
He opened the Spirit Root Map.
Mountains, kingdoms, and territories appeared—Da Li Dynasty, Da Xu Dynasty, and countless others. But none contained the Spirit Root. A single arrow guided the eye across continent after continent, until it stopped at the edge of the greatest empire: the Great Xuan Empire.
There, at the empire's frontier, lay a boundless, ancient wilderness.
And deep within that savage forest…
countless ancient god-temples, each one marked on the map.
"What? The Five-Element Spirit Root is inside the Savage God-Temples?"
Yan let out a startled hiss.
"The Savage God-Temples? Those ruins from the ancient wild civilizations? There are thousands of them in that forest—each crawling with strange beasts and powerful natives. Even demonic sects like the Barbaric Desolation Demon Sect have roots there. That place is death itself."
Fang Han had read many worlds' histories. He understood.
His world was called the Xuanhuang Great World—the center of the cosmos, the domain closest to the Immortal Realm, where the World Tree itself grew. Beyond it lay infinite voids, starry realms, collapsed dimensions, and cosmic storms.
Even a Longevity Realm expert couldn't explore one billionth of this world, let alone everything beyond it.
The Savage God-Temples lay deep in the primeval forests of the Great Xuan Empire—a land where, according to legends, a civilization even greater than the current empire once rose. It built countless monumental temples and ruled unimaginable populations.
Then, inexplicably, that civilization perished overnight. Billions—hundreds of billions—died. Cities and temples sank into time's abyss.
Now millions of square miles of forest contained hundreds of thousands of those ancient temples, silent and deadly reminders of lost glory.
Many sect disciples had explored them seeking treasure.
Some vanished forever.
Others returned cursed by inexplicable misfortune and died without cause.
Thus, most sects treated the Savage God-Temples as forbidden zones.
Now the Spirit Root was hidden inside one of them.
This complicated things.
"Yan, do you know anything more? What secrets lie in those temples?"
"No one knows," Yan replied. "The Barbaric Empire rose after the ancient Three Emperors battled the Gods. After the Xuanhuang World collapsed and reformed, that empire emerged from the ashes—then disappeared just as mysteriously. Even the Yellow Springs Emperor avoided those temples. He calculated danger there—danger he could not decipher."
"So serious?"
Fang Han inhaled sharply.
But after thinking for a long moment, he made his decision.
"If I can't obtain the Five-Element Spirit Root, the Five Emperors Great Demon Art will take far more than ten years to complete. I must go. Even Meng Shaobai entered those temples and came out alive with his Spirit Root. Then so can I. And passing through the Great Xuan Empire will let me visit their treasure markets."
The Great Xuan Empire—largest in the world, population in the tens of billions, spanning tens of thousands of miles—was renowned for its treasure markets. Even Divine Ability and Longevity Realm experts traded there.
The Wandering Seas Market was modeled after it.
Backed by the mighty Taiyi Sect, no one dared create disorder in its markets. Trade there was safe, lawful, and incredibly profitable.
And Fang Han could now refine three hundred and thirty-six Nascent Infant Pills per day—treasures any sect would fight for.
With such capital, going to the Great Xuan Empire to "treasure hunt" was not just necessary—it was inevitable.