There is no day or night outside the window.

The sacred mountain cave has no external windows, and the color temperature of the spirit lamps remains constant.

Chen Chen didn't know how long he had been adjusting his breathing.

He opened his eyes when the knocking talisman sounded.

The stone gate rises.

Zi Ling stood outside the door.

It had been more than half a month since we last met.

She wore a light purple casual robe with wider sleeves, and no silver-threaded soft armor belt around her waist.

Her hair was neatly tied back with a hairpin, and there were a few more stray strands at her temples than last time.

Her face was expressionless, but Chen Chen noticed the wooden box she was holding.

"Senior Chen, have you rested enough?"

She didn't come immediately because she knew Chen Chen needed time to recover after surviving a near-death experience.

After waiting for so many days, I couldn't wait any longer.

"Come in." Chen Chen stepped aside to make way.

Zi Ling walked into the reception room and glanced around.

At the entrance of the herb garden, the green-scaled deer raised its head and met her gaze.

Zi Ling didn't ask any more questions. She walked to the stone table and placed the wooden box on it.

"The copper pieces were delivered last time. These few pieces are fragments of demon artifacts that Father found in his private treasury, unearthed along with the copper pieces."

She opened the wooden box.

Three broken artifacts lay side by side on the velvet at the bottom of the box: a fragment of a sword hilt engraved with demonic script, a bone breastplate with cracked edges, and a small bronze tripod with only three legs remaining.

Each piece is engraved with the same demonic script as the original Brahma artifact.

It's not of high quality, but the inscription is much more complete than that of a bronze plate.

Chen Chen picked up the broken piece of the sword hilt from the box and slowly ran his fingertips along the strokes of the demonic script.

"These items have been sitting at the bottom of the warehouse for years."

Zi Ling sat down on the futon and took out the account jade slip from her sleeve, placing it on the corner of the table.

"I checked the excavation records, and it came from the same cave ruins as the bronze piece. My father said it might be an old artifact that flowed over from the sea tribes back then, and no one has recognized it until now."

Chen Chen put the broken sword hilt back into the box and closed the lid.

"Please thank your father for me."

Zi Ling nodded.

Then silence.

The only sound in the reception room was the faint hum of the spirit-gathering array in operation. The Azure-Scaled Deer yawned at the entrance of the herb garden, its hooves making a soft rubbing sound on the stone slabs.

Zi Ling's eyes flickered slightly.

"How long will you be going into seclusion next, senior?"

"The opening of the Void Heaven Palace is imminent, and I will at least emerge from seclusion before it opens."

"I've taken over most of the sect's affairs now. My own cultivation level is low, and my father spends most of his time in the shop reviewing old accounts."

"How about... I let my father protect you?"

Chen Chen shook his head helplessly.

"You're a very clever girl, but when it comes to urgent matters, you really can't distinguish between what's important and what's not."

Upon hearing this, Zi Ling clenched the hem of her clothes tightly, without refuting it, realizing her own inappropriateness.

"Zi Ling is overthinking it."

"It's good that you have this intention. So... when the Void Heaven Palace opens, you can come with me."

Upon hearing this, Zi Ling's pupils contracted slightly, and she instantly understood Chen Chen's implied meaning.

"Senior Chen went into seclusion immediately after returning...that's it."

In a place like the Void Heaven Palace, Core Formation cultivators are not qualified to sit at the table, let alone bring others.

"Then Zi Ling would like to offer her early congratulations to Senior Chen!"

She then got up and left without any hesitation, the stone door closing behind her.

Chen Chen sat alone in the reception room, his fingertips slowly tracing the broken, patina-covered edges of the original Brahma Saint artifact.

The copper sheet was cold, and the three remnants of the demon race lay quietly under the spirit lamp, their demonic script strokes rough like animal claw marks.

Deciphering takes time.

He stood up, put the wooden box and copper pieces into his storage bag, and then turned and walked into the herb garden.

The Azure-Scaled Deer followed behind him, its four hooves rustling softly as it stepped on the spiritual soil.

The Thunder Bamboo stood quietly under the spiritual light, with silver arcs of electricity flashing between its nodes.

The faint gold lines at the bamboo joints are a sign that the year is approaching a critical point... It's still far from it, but the direction is right.

The Life-Generating Bottle quietly rotated beside the bamboo roots. The faint light of the runes inside the bottle flickered on and off at an extremely slow pace. Most of the newly added spiritual herbs had already dissolved, and the level of the life-generating liquid was about one finger higher than before.

Chen Chen squatted down to examine the spiritual soil at the base of the Thunder Bamboo.

The soil moisture is moderate, and the branches of the Spirit Gathering Array are operating normally.

The green-scaled deer peeked over from behind his shoulder and touched a small, newly sprouted bamboo shoot at the bottom of the bamboo pole with its nose.

Then it stepped back half a step and lay down on the spiritual soil about three feet away from the roots of the Thunder Bamboo, resting its chin on its front hooves, its pale golden pupils half-closed.

Chen Chen glanced at it.

From the moment I entered the herb garden, I liked to stay near the Thunder Bamboo, probably because wood-attribute monsters have a natural affinity for spiritual plants.

Chen Chen didn't think much of it and stood up to return to the quiet room.

The dull thud of the stone door closing fell behind them, and the low hum of the spirit-gathering array reactivating seeped up from the ground.

He sat cross-legged on a Bodhi wood cushion.

Half a pot of Azure Flame Wine, a bottle of Enhancing Essence Pills, and all the spiritual herbs and flesh refined from Feng hope's storage bag were stored in several rows of porcelain bottles, lined up in front of the futon.

Close your eyes.

Shift your focus away from the sense of time, stop counting how many incense sticks have burned or how many days and nights have passed, and only count the cycles of the days.

The Spirit Gathering Array continuously draws spiritual energy from the sacred mountain's veins into the quiet room, making the air so thick that you can almost taste the slight astringency of the spiritual energy with your tongue.

I don't know how much time passed.

The senses in my body were completely taken away.

I fell downwards, and when I landed, there was a flat gray ground beneath my feet.

The gray fog surged in from all directions.

Origin space.

Before the gray fog had completely dissipated, Chen Chen heard a sound during a gap in the swirling fog.

"here we go again."

Tian Zechen's voice.

The gray fog dissipated within a few breaths.

The five people each stood in their own positions, forming a loose circle.

Chen Chen, a member of the Dragon Clan, was on the innermost side. The dark gold mark around his scarlet vertical pupils was still there, and the sea-blue dragon scales spread from the back of his hand to his forearm. The dragon blood fluctuations suppressed by the Fetal Breathing Technique caused the surrounding gray mist to swirl around him a beat slower than elsewhere.

Chen Chen sat cross-legged on the ground. He looked the most relaxed, with his elbows resting on his knees, but Chen Chen noticed that his gaze had locked onto him the moment the gray mist dissipated.

Tian Zechen crossed his arms over his chest.

Then there's Hyuga Dust.

Hyuga Chen stood at the very edge of the group of five. Aside from his Tenseigan and fair skin, surprisingly, a pair of unfamiliar dragon horns had sprouted from his forehead.

Memory synchronization begins.

The flow of information among the five people is like several rivers flowing into the same sea.

After the synchronization ended, there was a moment of silence in the gray fog.

The first to speak in the silence was Hinata Chen.

Hyuga Chen spoke first without waiting for their response.

"The fusion of the Otsutsuki clan and the dragon's blood is currently incomplete."

What are your thoughts?

Chen Chen took over the conversation.

"The situation on Yangshen's side is exactly the opposite of yours. After the form of the Reincarnation Eye stabilizes on Yangshen, the soul infiltration of the dragon blood follows the underlying path of life cultivation, and the two actually achieve a new balance of life and death."

"So...you could try using external forces to restore balance, such as natural energy?"

Tian Zechen pulled his right hand out of his pocket and opened his palm.

"Perhaps you can use this."

A ball of magical power emerged.

The pale gold base is permeated with dark blue patterns, a new change caused by the curse power after the dragon blood had seeped into it last time.

Technique: Dragon Dance

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