At the center of this celestial palace was a spring pool — ten thousand streams of auspicious energy, radiant light cascading in every direction, surging and erupting. One glance told you this was a divine pool, its spiritual energy so rich it could not dissolve.

Of course, the spring pool itself was not the most eye-catching thing here. What truly shook the heart and soul, making it impossible to look away, was the object nurtured within it — ten thousand types of Dao traces weaving together, dazzlingly beautiful.

It was a treasure tree — immortal energy drifting and steaming upward — giving it the quality of a dream and an illusion, as though rooted in an immortal realm yet stretching down into the mortal world, spanning two worlds at once.

It had several main trunks, covered in rough old bark — yet on close examination, they had already merged with the Dao. The slender branches, by contrast, were crystalline and translucent, flowing with radiant light — mysterious and profound.

Around it, strands upon strands of Dao traces intertwined with heaven and earth. Occasionally they produced resonant sounds — the reverberations of the great Dao rising and falling — which nearly caused those who heard them to achieve enlightenment in an instant.

But what drew the eye most of all were the leaves upon the tender branches. Almost no two were alike. Each shimmered translucently, as though forged from nine-heaven jade, shimmering with tens of thousands of rays of light and mist — all of them traces of the great Dao.

One leaf was shaped like a small cauldron — without luster, ancient and grand. It bore three legs and two ears; one of the cauldron legs served as a leaf stem connecting it to the branch, a vessel for the great Dao.

Another leaf was shaped like an immortal phoenix — blood-red all over, crimson aureoles flashing, as though born from bathing in divine flame, about to spread its wings and soar into the void. Only a single phoenix tail-feather connected it to the branch, from which it pulsed with red and auspicious light, with the faint cry of a phoenix bird drifting through the air.

Yet another leaf was shaped like a golden small bell — entirely translucent gold, hanging and swaying lightly, actually producing a deep, resonant peal like a great bell striking, which made those who heard it feel their soul drawn toward the Dao.

The leaves above were strange and varied beyond imagination; it would be hard to find two alike. Vermilion birds, the eight trigrams, divine swords, gourds, sacred parasols — all glimmered with divine radiance, enchanting all who looked upon them. Every single leaf was a trace of a different Dao, drawing on the spirit and mind of all present.

How could such a treasure tree fail to astonish? Swallowing hard was only natural. They were overwhelmed with excitement — this kind of priceless treasure was impossibly rare in all the world. Whoever came would have to tremble.

Long Ma kicked out his hind legs in excitement, nearly sending the unscrupulous Daoist flying. Relying on his sharp eyes and quick ears — though quite fat — Duan De was nimble in body and dodged out of the way.

“What a treasure!” The great black dog swallowed hard and was the first to lunge forward. Long Ma refused to be outdone — his basin-sized hooves rising up as he charged wildly forward, nearly trampling the Black Emperor’s tail in the process.

“Bark!”

“Neigh!”

A dog’s bark and a horse’s whinny, plus Duan De’s “Boundless virtue of Heaven!” — the place suddenly became lively.

“No need to fight — there are so many immortal leaves; everyone gets a share.” Ye Fan and the Sacred Imperial Prince quickly separated them, lest they come to actual blows.

This was the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree — no one had imagined they would encounter it here. Its main trunks were rough, the old tree bark peeling apart like dragon scales, containing the aura of the Dao within. As for the tender branches and their crystalline, translucent leaves — there was nothing more to say. Each one was exceptional and extraordinary; every single leaf was priceless beyond measure. This was nothing like the tender buds Ye Fan and the others had collected in the past — these were flawless leaves woven through with Dao traces.

“Clang!”

A leaf shaped like a thirty-three-story pagoda trembled lightly, flowing with the primordial yellow and black energy of heaven and earth, and let out a resonant toll. Those who heard it felt their minds grow still — all agitation instantly disappeared.

“Ring!”

A silver-white leaf shaped like a Dao sword gleamed with a piercing cold light, blazing with intense radiance, releasing a sword cry that struck to the heart — severing all attachments. In that instant, everyone nearly achieved sudden enlightenment.

“It is truly mysterious. No wonder the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree is said to be the embodiment of the great Dao itself — rooted outside the primordial energy of heaven and earth, transcending the five elemental phases. Every kind of Dao can be found upon its form. It can be used as a foundation for profound comprehension.”

The divine spring burbled gently, not very large. Spiritual energy steamed upward, enveloping every leaf in warmth. Here, water mist drifted and thin wisps of smoke curled. Five-colored light danced, brilliant and magnificent.

Ye Fan, the Sacred Imperial Prince, Duan De, and the others gathered close and examined carefully. They found that the several main trunks below were not connected to one another — all of them were severed branches, with no root systems whatsoever.

They had been cut from the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree. The cuts were clean and even, with a mysterious fluid weeping from the wounds, its fragrance assaulting the senses — making one feel as though they could float away, ascending to immortality on the spot.

Standing in this place, every cell in their bodies became active. Every pore opened and contracted in rhythm with the radiant light around them, exchanging brilliance and absorbing the finest essence of the air. Their feet lifted of their own accord, as though they would ascend with the celestial mist and become immortals.

“Truly a heaven-defying masterstroke — to have penetrated the Undying Mountain and cut sections from the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree and brought them out. It’s like something out of the Arabian Nights.” Li Heishui sighed.

“The existence that surpasses the gods lives up to its name.” Ye Fan murmured softly.

The Undying Celestial Emperor was a figure of the early primordial age — or even older — born hundreds of thousands of years ago. It was in that era that this Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree was felled.

In ages past, the Undying Celestial Emperor had carved the main trunk of the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree into a divine spirit coffin and buried himself within it. Many people throughout history — including Ye Fan himself — had laid eyes upon it.

In the immortal domain world of the Zhongzhou Celestial Mansion, atop a ten-thousand-zhang jade platform, there had once been a spectacle of several extreme Dao imperial weapons arrayed in opposition. The spirit-consciousness manifestation of the Undying Celestial Emperor’s divine aspect had even materialized and appeared there.

Ye Fan had seized the Enlightenment Tree coffin in that place and given it to several old companions. Pang Bo had even gnawed on the coffin boards because of it — giving rise to a few tales that still drew laughter.

The celestial palace was grand — carved beams, painted columns, gold and jade in splendor. The divine spring sat at the center of the hall, burbling gently. The trunks of the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree grew as though still connected to their original roots, filled with vigorous life energy. Ten thousand rays of auspicious light shone forth; strands of Dao traces cascaded downward.

For all of them, this was a heaven-defying fortune of a kind that could be encountered but never sought.

Beside the divine spring stood a stone table and several stone stools. Upon the table was a nine-dragon-coiling divine vessel and several jade cups — evidence that the Celestial Imperial Prince regularly came here to drink Enlightenment Tea.

“You really can’t compare people with one another. Having Enlightenment Tea to savor, divine spring water to drink — all of this is the arrangement of an ancient great emperor.”

“Let us also brew a pot of tea.” Duan De turned his hand and produced several more jade cups — each one glittering and lustrous, no lesser than the cups on the stone table. He had dug them out from an ancient burial tomb.

The innate Dao fire danced. In the vessel, a golden roc spread its wings across the lake, while a mysterious dark tortoise raised its head, resonating with the great Dao. Rich, clear fragrance spread throughout the entire hall, which became suffused with steaming clouds and glowing mist.

The tea dissolved into Dao light the moment it touched the lips. Every person’s mind became tranquil. In an instant, all fell into a state of enlightenment. The various secret arts they had studied settled and clarified within them, their mastery advancing and ascending to new heights.

“Beyond words in its wonder.” This was the genuine feeling of every person present.

The leaves upon the trunks were not particularly dense, yet each one was unlike any other. Looking at them, the branches did not appear bare — each leaf was profoundly mysterious and inscrutable.

It is said that the Enlightenment Ancient Tea Tree produces exactly one hundred and eight leaves per year — no more, no less — with the sole exception of the great cycle of ten thousand years, when it may produce three thousand.

The sight before their eyes, though many had already been used, still held several hundred shimmering leaves — their value beyond all estimation.

“These were produced during the ten-thousand-year great cycle — we have encountered tremendous fortune!”

They carefully examined the divine spring and found that it did not connect down into the earth — it was simply a pool, carved with mysterious talismanic scripts that gathered the finest essence of heaven and earth, holding the divine water and nurturing the trunks of the Enlightenment Tea Tree.

“Dig out the pool and take it with us!”

This group of people naturally had no intention of showing any restraint. They had come to raid and raze the place. With that, they worked together, chiseling and carving out the entire divine spring pool, intending to take it along with them.

“Don’t even think about going anywhere!” The Sacred Imperial Prince shouted sharply.

A Dao Severance cultivator had been hiding in this place. Now, sensing an opportunity, he attempted to flee and summon an ancestor king — only to have the Sacred Imperial Prince swing his great iron staff and smash him with broken bones and severed tendons, killing him where he stood.

“No matter — we’ve set up a great formation outside. No one can escape. Let us continue searching.”

No one had imagined that a mere traveling palace left behind by the Undying Celestial Emperor — not even his main residence high in the nine heavens from which he might survey all living beings — would contain such a world-defying celestial object. Every one of them was bursting with excitement.

They turned every one of the main peaks upside down, reaping a magnificent haul. Ancient medicines, divine materials, spirit plants — everything imaginable was there, every piece of it priceless beyond measure.

Of course, the most precious of all was the Enlightenment Tea trunk. With this many leaves, enough to make countless Saints bow in supplication — it was beyond price.

In the end, the main peaks were left virtually without a blade of grass. They had dug out every medicinal plant, leaving the palace halls nearly collapsed. Even the divine source stones embedded in the pillars had been pried off and taken.

One could truly say: like a swarm of locusts passing through — almost nothing was left behind.

The palace halls suspended in the sky above fared no better, becoming part of their haul, packed away together into spatial storage artifacts.

By the time they departed, the sacred land that had once been pulsing with life energy had been reduced to a barren wilderness — without a single hair remaining.

Yet Duan De was still reluctant to leave, wandering back and forth around the various mountain peaks, seemingly searching for something.

“Let’s go already.” Ye Fan urged. This place could not be lingered in — disturbing even one of the ancestor kings would be a great deal of trouble.

“This poor Daoist finds the terrain here to be quite auspicious — walls of jade embracing living water, an ideal site for burial. I suspect the Celestial Imperial Prince’s ancestors are mostly buried somewhere around here — yet the results have been truly disappointing.”

Everyone rolled their eyes. Wherever this fat man passed, truly nothing remained. The treasures inside the divine palace were one thing — but even the grave mounds were on his mind. It was rather terrifying.

“One ought not to be so utterly Duan De about things!”

“Boundless virtue of Heaven.”

The group left the mountain gate, withdrew both the Source Heaven tracery and the Heaven-Deceiving Formation, and — in keeping with Long Ma’s blunt suggestion — burned the whole place clean.

The Black Emperor adopted an expression of exaggerated grief and sorrow. “One should always leave a thread of mercy.”

“Not a single hair is left here — what thread of mercy are you talking about?!” Long Ma scoffed.

“Leave a thread of mercy for the moment — otherwise those ancestor kings will immediately come jumping out.” Ye Fan said. The group departed laden with spoils and vanished into the depths of the mountain range.

In the Southern Region, the Celestial Imperial Prince stood upon the ancient war chariot. His thick black hair flowed freely, his face handsome beyond compare, his eyes like two cold stars. The Undying Heavenly Blade lay across his back, and about him was an air of a man who could swallow mountains and rivers whole.

He had led the Eight Divine General Legions to take dominion over the Southern Region. No one dared obstruct his path. Wherever he passed, all ten directions fell silent — not a single cultivator of the Southern Region dared to utter a sound. Every one of them was struck dumb with fear.

“What does the Sacred Imperial Prince amount to? And that mysterious human powerhouse is equally nothing but an ant. Before the invincible Celestial Imperial Prince, they are nothing but clay chickens and pottery dogs — utterly beneath contempt and incapable of withstanding a single blow!”

These words, once spoken, shook the entire Eastern Wastelands. The boasting was arrogant and overbearing, not placing either of the two figures who had killed half-Saints in the slightest regard — only contempt.

People understood: the Celestial Imperial Prince and the Sacred Imperial Prince had torn away all pretense — this was a fight to the death, with no intention of stopping until one side was destroyed. Otherwise his subordinates would never have spoken in such a manner.

That very day, the major auction houses across the Southern Region suddenly issued an announcement: astonishing items were to be auctioned.

“Son of God… this is terrible!” An Ancient Tribe warrior flew to a main peak in the Southern Region.

“What are you so flustered about? Just what has happened?” The Celestial Imperial Prince asked in a cold, measured voice.

“Someone is auctioning off the Undying Celestial Emperor’s traveling palace, along with various wondrous treasures and divine materials.”

The Celestial Imperial Prince’s eyes went upright on the spot. His expression turned to its most extreme cold ruthlessness.

Beside him, one of the Eight Divine General Legion commanders shouted in reprimand: “How outrageous! This is fabricated nonsense designed to cause confusion — who is behind this?!”

“It is not fabricated. I saw it with my own eyes, and the information has been verified. Who in Cloud Peak City doesn’t know by now? Ancient Tribe experts have already confirmed it with secret arts.” The Ancient Tribe warrior knelt on the mountain peak, quaking with terror.

“What?!” The Celestial Imperial Prince finally changed color. His thick black hair stirred without any wind, whipping about in wild frenzy. His eyes were like two bolts of lightning.

“There is also…” The warrior knelt trembling, unable for a moment to force the words out.

“There is also what?” One of the commanders demanded.

“Someone is also auctioning off the undergarments that the Son of God personally wore against his body…”

“Spurt!”

Upon hearing this, the Celestial Imperial Prince coughed up a mouthful of blood and nearly toppled headfirst off the war chariot. He understood: his traveling palace had been raided by someone. This was a deliberate, pointed humiliation.