Fang Han didn't bother answering Hua Tiandu.
Instead, he moved.
His figure flickered—vanished—then reappeared right beside Hua Tiandu. His fingers sharpened like blades, wrapped in demon flame and crackling thunder, five-colored radiance humming around him. The piercing force of his strike tore straight down.
Hua Tiandu didn't so much as blink. Purple talisman-light erupted from his body, exploding into countless bolts of divine thunder that swept outward like a tidal wave. He didn't try to match Fang Han's speed. He simply unleashed a sky-covering storm—thunder washing the earth—a tactic that looked eerily reminiscent of Fang Han's old battle against Meng Shaobai.
Back then, Meng Shaobai had flown wildly on his wings while Fang Han flooded the battlefield with elemental lightning.
Now, their roles were reversed.
The entire cavern filled with thunder sigils.
It was Hua Tiandu's Profound Heaven Demon-Refining Thunder Array. His first goal was to trap Fang Han. After he handled the "Black Nether King" on the surface, he would return to finish Fang Han off in one decisive strike.
The manifestation he had sent underground wasn't even his full strength. Half of his essence still guarded the Dragon Palace above, wrestling with another powerhouse. Only someone of Hua Tiandu's level could fight two battles at once—and hold the advantage in both.
This thunder array is strong, Fang Han thought, slipping between bolts of destruction. I could force my way out, but that would reveal my true identity. Hua Tiandu would know immediately who I am. No… this way is better.
A plan flashed through him—instantly formed, instantly executed.
His consciousness dove into the Yellow Springs Diagram. The seven dragon eggs he had just obtained floated forward, drifting toward the Kunpeng Divine Egg.
The eggs trembled violently, as if the unborn dragons sensed mortal danger. Each one struggled, trying to resist the devouring force emanating from the Kunpeng egg's demonic array.
Fang Han didn't let them.
The dragon eggs were overflowing with life essence—perfect nourishment.
The Kunpeng egg had absorbed the energy of his failed golden core transformation and was on the brink of hatching. But even with the Immortal Realm aura he injected daily, it would normally require half a year—or longer—to fully manifest.
These seven dragon eggs changed everything.
As they touched the Kunpeng egg, the devouring formation flared to life. Runes lit up, spinning like a black vortex. A wave of demonic suction ripped through the Yellow Springs Diagram, pulling all seven dragon eggs in at once.
The egg's surface patterns sharpened tenfold. The devouring matrix roared, turning the Kunpeng's boundless life essence into pure demonic force—refining it, condensing it, transforming it.
Fang Han had studied the egg's structure for months. He had glimpsed fragments of the Great Devouring Technique, one of the supreme demonic abilities on par with the Great Collapse and Great Severing. And because the egg had absorbed his metamorphosing golden core, it had formed a blood-deep connection with him.
Every change inside it—he felt.
Cracks spread across the Kunpeng egg.
Snap. Snap. Snap.
A silhouette emerged within—neither fish nor bird, yet both—an enormous primordial Kunpeng soaring across a boundless sky. But the demonic array bound it tightly, reducing its shape to flowing runes: symbols that expressed one thing only—
endless hunger.
After absorbing the seven dragon eggs, the formation finally completed.
A demonic array rose from the floor of the Yellow Springs Diagram—small, only a few dozen paces across, yet bottomless. A true void pit, a world-swallowing abyss.
Star-patterned talismans circled endlessly inside it. At its core, something enormous—something made to devour stars—breathed in and out.
The Great Devouring Array had been born.
And the moment it formed, Fang Han felt the connection snap into place. It shrank to palm-size, shot into his body, and fused with his mind.
His consciousness expanded—
once, twice—
doubling outright.
Even if he couldn't absorb the Ghost Emperor's Nine-Specter Soul, he could now contain another golden core's worth of power.
The array then found its home—attaching itself to his Life Talisman, merging seamlessly.
Originally holding fifty-five divine abilities, the talisman now housed fifty-six. The demonic aura wrapped around it, strengthening it so tightly that it once again showed faint signs of condensing into a golden core.
But this was absolutely not the time.
A new divine power meant even more energy required for core formation. And attempting the breakthrough inside Hua Tiandu's thunder trap would be suicide.
Fang Han exhaled sharply.
"Thunder sigils? What a joke. Watch me break this."
Lightning tore through the cavern, hunting him—but he inhaled sharply, unleashing the Great Devouring Technique.
A huge section of the array vanished into his mouth.
The thunder formation ruptured. Fang Han blurred, disappeared, and reappeared far beyond the collapsing sigils.
The entire sequence—from devouring eggs to forming the array to breaking free—had taken less than a blink.
He could have simply blasted out using the Life Talisman, but that would reveal his identity as Fang Han. Using the Great Devouring Technique instead not only concealed him, it shocked Hua Tiandu into confusion.
Catching Fang Han now?
Impossible.
"Great Devouring Technique!"
Hua Tiandu froze when he saw the breach. Even he hadn't expected to witness one of the demonic path's most elusive arts—mastered.
He had suspected the "Death Scholar" had some connection to Fang Han. But Fang Han could never wield the Great Devouring Technique.
Which meant—this person couldn't be Fang Han.
That moment of doubt cost him. Fang Han vanished before Hua Tiandu could react.
"This technique… Even with the manual, I would need centuries to master it. And he's already perfected it? Is he… a Demon Prince?" Hua Tiandu muttered, recalling his projection and dispersing the thunder array. The cavern was empty. Fang Han was gone.
"Hmph. If he knows the Great Devouring Technique, thirty percent of my power isn't enough to seize him. I'll finish off the Black Nether King first. This one can run, but he won't escape."
With that, his figure shot upward through the earth.
Aboveground, chaos reigned in the submerged Dragon Palace.
The Black Nether King—a powerhouse at the ninth layer of Divine Ability, a True Manifestation realm dominator—was locked in life-and-death combat with Hua Tiandu's main body. Hua Tiandu was wielding not one, but two Dao Artifacts.
The Panwu Divine Sword—a mid-grade Dao Artifact whose sharpness shredded even supreme-grade treasures.
And the Great Wilderness Furnace—a high-grade Dao Artifact equal to Fang Qingxue's Immortal Lightning Talisman. The ancient Panwu Immortal had once used it to refine demon gods.
"Hua Tiandu! I'll kill you even if it costs my life!"
The Black Nether King was cornered. His artifacts shattered one after another, unable to withstand the Panwu Sword's destructive edge.
A mid-grade Dao Artifact was far beyond the likes of the Blood Night King's inferior treasures.
His only defense now was his painstakingly cultivated manifestation—the Shadowed Primordial Soul, an avatar forged over a thousand years. It barely blocked the Panwu Sword… but the constant strain drained him rapidly.
And the Great Wilderness Furnace loomed above him like a cosmic iron pot, sealing everything.
He knew—even self-detonation wouldn't harm Hua Tiandu. The Furnace would swallow the explosion whole.
He hesitated.
To blow up the manifestation was to die entirely, with no hope of rebirth.
But survival seemed equally impossible.
Then—
A rumble echoed from underground.
Hua Tiandu's returning projection.
"Damn it… no choice!"
The Black Nether King's eyes hardened.
He snapped his arm forward—then detonated it.
The entire limb burst into a storm of blood and wailing demonic spirits. Black clouds surged, pouring into his Shadowed Primordial Soul.
The Demonic Sacrifice Art.
A technique that consumed one's own flesh to unleash a final desperate surge of power.
And he committed to it without hesitation.