No one could have predicted what happened next.
The moment the talisman from the Five-Element Land—etched with the sacred mantra "Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum"—touched the Blood Dragon Crystal mountain, the entire peak began to transform. It shed its form, collapsed inward, and shrunk, as if awakened by some ancient force buried within the talisman. A hidden power stirred—one that resonated directly with the Heavenly Dragon bloodline.
Crack after crack echoed as the mountain condensed, and even Fang Han stood stunned.
With his Golden Core complete, ninety divine abilities mastered, and magic power unmatched beneath the Eternal Life realm, he still couldn't fathom such a sudden and overwhelming change.
The talisman had always carried mystery—any object capable of traversing between worlds would. Yet it was the six sacred syllables that concealed the greatest enigma. They felt like echoes from the dawn of creation, carrying secrets far beyond his current reach.
He had sensed it before.
When cultivating the Great Universal Mercy Light, the talisman had twitched—as if stirred—but then fell silent again. He had understood then: his Buddhist light was far too weak to invoke its full power.
This time, he had acted merely on intuition.
The Five-Element Land had contained a mountain eerily similar to the Blood Dragon Crystal peak. On impulse, he had pressed the talisman to its surface.
And now—
Under the power of the Six-Syllable True Words, the massive Blood Dragon Crystal mountain—the very core of his Eightfold Pagoda prototype—shrunk again and again. Just like the Human Emperor Brush when it had collapsed into a feather.
For Fang Han to compress a mountain like this would require at least the Eternal Life realm, perhaps even mastery over spatial laws.
Yet this simple talisman could do it.
The prototype continued shrinking until, eventually, it stood as an eight-inch-tall pagoda. One side of it gleamed with the eight fused top-grade artifacts; the other now bore the talisman itself—melded seamlessly into the structure, as though the talisman had finally found its rightful home.
"They've actually merged..."
Just as Fang Han leaned in to study the transformation—
VMMMMM—
The pagoda trembled, humming with a newborn consciousness.
Then, like a living creature, it tried to fly away.
"What—? Has it formed a spirit? Is it turning into a dao artifact already?" Fang Han muttered. "Trying to escape, are you? Even if you've birthed an artifact spirit, you're inside my Yellow Springs Diagram. You're not going anywhere. And even outside, under my Golden Core domain, you wouldn't make it a foot."
He reached out, unleashing a vast tide of magic. It surged over the pagoda like a falling sky, smothering its attempt to flee.
The tower thrashed violently. The eight embedded treasures shuddered.
The Sky-Splitting Halberd and King-Slaying Axe burst with killing intent—a massive phantom axe materialized overhead and came crashing toward Fang Han. The halberd flickered and lunged straight at one of his vital points.
Fang Han didn't even blink.
With a flick of his fingers, two razor streaks of starlight shot out—manifestations of the Star-Refining Demon-Slaying Blade—colliding with the phantom weapons and blasting them apart.
Then his Golden Core spun forth, descending like a world-crushing meteor and smashing the pagoda to the riverbed of the Yellow Springs.
The entire diagram trembled.
Even pinned beneath a fully empowered Golden Core, the pagoda writhed like a chained ancient demon, each convulsion shaking the whole realm.
"What incredible strength…" Fang Han muttered.
The talisman, the mountain, and the Eightfold Pagoda had fused into something altogether new—yet the eight artifacts had not ascended to dao artifact rank. Only the mountain itself seemed transformed.
Pouring more power through the World Tree within his brow, he forced waves of newly converted celestial energy into his Golden Core. With a brute surge of nearly one hundred million horses of strength—strength brushing against the Eternal Life threshold—he finally pinned the volatile tower into stillness.
Only then could he study it properly.
Extending his spiritual sense into the artifact, he saw the vast ocean of draconic blood within the mountain surging, gathering, condensing—
Into the vague silhouette of a blood-red Buddha.
Its presence resembled the ancient Buddha phantom inside the Burning Lamp Canopy, yet this one radiated raw dominance. Hands folded, chanting in deep, rolling thunder, its voice echoed with dragon tones and the resonance of temple bells and monastery drums.
Its chant carried a conversion power nearly identical to the Great Universal Mercy Light.
Fang Han, of course, was unmoved.
"So it's the talisman's doing. The Five-Element Land talisman actually forced the Blood Dragon Crystal to birth this… blood Buddha."
As he observed, Yan drifted closer, eyes widening as he sensed the truth.
"This isn't a dao artifact at all. The 'spirit' you sensed is just that blood Buddha inside. The true culprit is still that talisman."
A talisman capable of condensing blood into a Buddha.
Fang Han acted immediately.
"With my blood—subdue the pagoda!"
He forced his essence blood out in a single stream, merging it directly into the Buddha's form. Immediately, he understood.
The blood Buddha was akin to the Blood Night King—an embryonic artifact spirit. Not fully formed, but alive.
More astonishing were the spaces within the Eightfold Pagoda itself.
EIGHT layers.
Each layer spanning dozens of miles.
Each layer housing a suspended treasure at its center, suppressing the space.
And at the summit sat the blood-colored Buddha, chanting the six sacred syllables again and again. Every chant sent a mysterious, unknowable force flowing through the pagoda—a force neither immortal qi, nor divine energy, nor any worldly vitality.
Yet faintly akin to the Mercy Light.
The talisman itself remained affixed to the pagoda's back, dormant yet perfectly integrated. When Fang Han sent a thread of thought toward it, he realized—
He could once again open the passage to the Five-Element Land.
So that was it.
His earlier refinement with the Mercy Light had awakened hidden potentials within the talisman. Now it had used its power to shrink the mountain, form the blood Buddha, and carve out the pagoda's internal worlds.
Yan let out a cackle.
"Marvelous! Truly marvelous! The ancient Buddhist arts are on a different level entirely. This talisman is far more than a transport charm—it practically refined your pagoda for you! Without it, you'd need an immortal body and mastery of spatial law to shrink the mountain like this."
Fang Han nodded slowly. But his expression remained troubled.
"This is… abnormal," he muttered. "This talisman has slipped out of my control. It acted on its own to refine the Eightfold Pagoda. That smells like a scheme."
He understood the danger.
He had wanted to forge the Eightfold Pagoda into his life-bound treasure. But now the talisman had interfered, taken the lead, carving its own imprint into the artifact. Even though Fang Han had infused his blood into the Buddha, he couldn't shake the sense that he might one day… be used.
"That said," Yan offered, "you've lost nothing—for now. The pagoda is stronger, and you can still wield it. And since the talisman responded to your Mercy Light, why not refine it with the Mercy Light every day? Who knows—maybe it'll keep perfecting the pagoda for you!"
"That may be my only option," Fang Han sighed.
Then his face tightened in irritation.
"I have nothing left on me. Not a pill. Not a treasure. Even the Dragon God Pill and the Blackwater King Serpent are gone—consumed by the Golden Core breakthrough. And Exquisite Immortal Venerable's grand ceremony is almost here. Ten days until I set off. I can't arrive empty-handed. I have to bring gifts—artifacts, pills—something worthy of her sect's disciples."
Yan winced.
"A tricky problem indeed. All you have left is Song Weiyi's Golden Core. Everything else is gone. The celestial energy the World Tree gathered over these days… burned clean by your breakthrough. Not a single Nascent Soul Pill made. And now that you have a Golden Core—activating it drains your magic like a river. One pulse and you're empty. The World Tree's energy barely keeps you running."
Fang Han rubbed his temples.
An awkward predicament indeed.