"Fang Han—we move! Now!" Yan's voice rang through the Yellow Springs Diagram, edged with panic. "We've seized a hundred Blackwater King Serpents, the Blood-Dragon Crystal Mountain, and an entire Ancient Heaven-Dragon skeleton. Every eye will turn on us. If we don't run this instant, we die. Once Hua Tiandu recovers, neither of us can withstand him. He's not the Ghost Emperor—he's far worse. The Ghost Emperor was decaying. Hua Tiandu is worth three of him… and he's carrying two Dao-Artifacts!"
Yan, still fused with the dragon corpse, sank into the Yellow Springs River to begin refining it.
Inside the Diagram, Nebula Baby and Prince Yi were already hiding. Only this artifact could swallow so many impossibly huge treasures—a mountain, hundreds of serpents, a thousand-meter dragon corpse. No treasure pouch in the world could manage such madness.
"Fortune favors the bold," Fang Han said through clenched teeth. "Into the dragon's den!"
He blurred into motion, triggering the White Emperor Golden Severing art. His entire body became a streaking sword-light as he dove straight into the cavern entrance beneath the Blood-Dragon Crystal Mountain.
Originally, the mountain had sealed the entrance shut. But Hua Tiandu's overwhelming force had torn it free, exposing the shadowy outline of a dragon palace beneath.
Why the ancient dragon had died outside its own palace was impossible to know. Maybe it had shed its skin on the mountain and perished unexpectedly. The Blackwater King Serpents in the lake had clearly been its personal beasts.
The mountain was unimaginably heavy. Even with Fang Han's current power, he couldn't lift it—only smash it and collect the fragments. That alone revealed the gap between him and Hua Tiandu. Their realms differed by four whole tiers, and Fang Han had yet to form a Golden Core.
"Damn it—someone beat us inside!"
"Who? That speed—too fast!"
"Fourth Brother, what is happening?!"
"Chase! That must be the Death-Seizing Scholar! I never imagined he had a Dao-Artifact—no, something even stronger. Otherwise he could never have collected the Blood-Dragon Crystal Mountain. No pouch could contain it!"
Prince Yi only saw a flash of golden light. All the treasures vanished from the sky. Then the light dove underground.
Every expert present—Prince Zhen, the Black Nether King, the Thirteenth Prince, Prince Yi, even Hua Tiandu and the First Prince—stood stunned. None had imagined that in the middle of such a brutal fight, someone would move faster than thought, seize every treasure, and slip away without a trace.
And that someone had left nothing behind.
Worse—he had plunged into the dragon palace to loot whatever lay inside.
A roar split the sky.
Hua Tiandu reacted first, recalling his Panwu Divine Sword and alchemical furnace. His body turned into a river of starlight and shot into the cavern.
He was furious—but also relieved. If this thief had escaped upward, chasing him would've been a hassle. But diving further in? Into a sealed dragon palace with no exits? That was as good as throwing oneself into a slaughterhouse.
One after another, the experts dove down—Prince Yi, the Black Nether King. Ninth-realm monsters, prideful and greedy. No one could accept walking away with nothing—not even scraps.
Fang Han hit the dragon palace floor like a shadow. One sweep of his divine sense revealed a vast, majestic hall—everything carved of metal essence and true-water essence, radiating draconic grandeur.
He couldn't store the palace itself, but under his sweeping awareness, he locked instantly onto the places where powerful treasures were hidden.
He moved like a ghost.
In the central hall, a massive pillar cracked open under his White Emperor Golden Severing art. Inside a compartment lay a jade-green gourd filled with pills. It vanished into the Diagram.
At the same moment, in a side chamber, a crystalline pill furnace carved with heavenly dragons and runes dissolved into Fang Han's grip.
In a sealed meditation room, a wall vaporized under the Red Emperor Fire Sovereign Qi, revealing a ruler-shaped treasure he instantly took.
A copper bell hanging from the rafters disappeared.
A war-drum thundered once before being collected.
In a blink, Fang Han smashed open nine treasure-laden spots—each radiating immense power. Nine supreme-grade treasures and pills fell into his hands.
A jade gourd of pills.
A crystal pill furnace.
An archaic ruler.
A copper bell.
A great war-drum.
A coral prayer-bead strand.
A dragon-script crystal orb.
A colossal halberd.
A steel chariot-wheel battle-axe.
Everything swept clean.
He took only the strongest. There were still more treasures scattered through the palace—but no time remained.
Because Hua Tiandu had arrived.
A tidal wave of divine power surged through the hall, trying to seal the chamber, cut off escape, and crush Fang Han like prey in a jar.
The palace had no exits. Any normal person entering was a trapped turtle.
But Fang Han was not "normal."
A talisman flew from his head, releasing a beam of brilliant light onto the floor.
The ground melted instantly. Fang Han dropped down, vanishing into molten stone—activating the Earth-escape aspect of the Five Emperors Demonic Divinity.
The palace was forged from metal and water essences, nearly impossible to break—but White Emperor metal-force and Black Emperor water-force melted it open. Beyond the palace's shell lay earth—endless, infinite earth. There, Huang Emperor Earth-Sovereign laws dominated.
The Five Emperors Demonic Divinity was the supreme magic of the demonic path—controlling the primal essence of all Five Elements. As defense, it was absolute. As offense, peerless. As escape art, unrivaled.
Only this method could evade Hua Tiandu.
If Fang Han had tried to flee into the sky, he would've been caught. Underground—never.
"Thief—think you can run?!"
Hua Tiandu's primordial spirit erupted, covering the palace in a crushing sweep. Every powerful aura had been looted. Even he was momentarily stunned. Someone dared rob him?
Even if these were not Dao-Artifacts or immortal treasures, the dragon bones, the Blood-Dragon Crystal Mountain, nine supreme artifacts—together worth tens of billions—were wealth even ancient Longevity giants would covet.
And now they were gone.
His plan to trap Fang Han had failed. Fang Han had melted the palace floor and escaped into the deep earth.
"Split the earth!"
The ground ruptured with thunderclaps. The entire palace shook, collapsing inward as Hua Tiandu unleashed the Mountain-Splitting Dao of the Panwu Divine Might.
Two experts—Prince Yi and the Black Nether King—froze in terror. The violence of Hua Tiandu's strike made their souls tremble.
"Prince Yi, you may leave," Hua Tiandu said coldly. "But the Black Nether King—stays."
His Panwu Primordial Spirit transformed into a colossal hand, clawing into the earth after Fang Han.
At the same time, the Panwu Divine Sword slashed toward the Black Nether King, and the alchemical furnace soared upward, its mouth unfolding into a vortex of annihilation.
"This furnace is the Great Wilderness Ancient Cauldron," Hua Tiandu declared. "A top-grade Dao-Artifact, once used by the Panwu Immortal Venerable himself. Black Nether King—once you're inside, even if you self-destruct your entire Dao body, your remaining essence will become pills for me!"
A tyrant's decree.
Even Prince Yi's blood froze.
Fang Han had tunneled a thousand meters into the earth when he felt it—a terrifying force tearing through the earth after him, ripping the world open behind him.
The ground trembled. The soil split.
Hua Tiandu was catching up.
And Fang Han had only moments left.