Chapter 1836 : Chaos Moon Nest

As the words fell, the 6 ancient mighty immortals swiftly launched their assault. They coordinated a surprise attack, unleashing their full-powered strikes simultaneously toward the Dark Moon Phoenix.

However, the Nether Moon Black Luan was, after all, a 5-calamity Chaos Beast King. Even when ambushed by the group, it swiftly regained its composure.

With each beat of its wings, it stirred a raging tide of chaos. Its feathers transformed into heavenly swords that pierced through the primordial disorder, deflecting all incoming attacks and sending them flying back toward the assailants.

When all had settled, Eldrin discovered only 2 relatively minor wounds on the Dark Moon Luan—those left by himself and Luo Xingxuan.

His body seemed forged from the finest Primordial Divine Gold, his feathers as indestructible as peerless immortal armor.

Eldrin was inwardly shaken. Gripping the Chaos Heavenly Halberd, he charged forward without hesitation, calling out to Falling Star Xuan, "Strike now!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Luo Xingxuan immediately began to harvest the Heaven Soul Fruit Tree with absolute decisiveness.

However, the Heaven Soul Fruit Tree had taken root within the Chaos Nest, its essence long intertwined with the very origin of the nest. Uprooting and retrieving it was no simple task.

She had no choice but to unleash her full power, continuously channeling her spiritual energy to subdue the ancient tree, even at the cost of confronting the entire Chaos Nest itself.

In that brief moment of delay, the remaining few Chaos Beasts within the Chaos Nest swarmed forth, engaging in a fierce battle with Patriarch Tianya and the others.

The might of this Chaos Nest was truly formidable. Apart from the 5-Calamity Netherblack Luan, there were 5 Chaos Beast Kings, among which 2 had reached the 4-Calamity Ancient Immortal realm.

Coupled with over a 1000 primordial chaos beasts, even a Sixth Tribulation ancient immortal would meet certain death, leaving not even a fragment of their body to bury.

The group continued to engage in combat with it, only to suffer severe injuries 1 after another in a remarkably short span of time. This forced Eldrin to intervene repeatedly, offering his assistance.

Fortunately, their purpose this time was not to fight to the death, but merely to steal the Heaven Soul Spirit Tree. By continuously channeling their Primordial Ancient Treasures for protection, they managed to avoid casualties for the time being.

Thus, in the fleeting span of 1 shichen (Time & Distance), Luo Xingxuan finally manifested the Heaven-Soul Fruit Tree, exclaiming with unrestrained ecstasy, "Let's hurry away."

"You go on ahead."

Eldrin (Person Name) declared decisively, urging the others to leave before taking up the rear alone.

Alone, he faced the assembled heroes, brandishing the Chaos Heaven Halberd to strike in all directions. With devastating force, he sent several Chaos Beast Kings reeling, their blood spraying through the air, while he himself suffered wounds that sent trickles of blood streaming from the corners of his mouth.

After fighting with such desperation, they finally managed to help a few people escape the Chaos Lair.

"Almost there."

As the others departed, Eldrin spoke with an unruffled expression, then summoned the Chaos Heavenly Halberd to pierce through the passage, soaring into the depths of the primordial chaos.

The Lunar Black Luan still sought to pursue, but Eldrin’s gaze held a trace of amusement as he said, “You cannot keep me here.”

Upon hearing this, the Black Moon Luan’s heart trembled, sensing that taking even 1 more step forward would invite unimaginable terror. It immediately halted its pursuit.

Seeing this, Eldrin (Person Name) swiftly vanished into the chaos.

With his current combat prowess, he could hardly subdue this Lunar Black Luan. Yet if he dared to risk activating the Abyssal Pearl's sub-core, even this celestial creature would be utterly annihilated, leaving no trace of its existence.

Seeing that the Darkmoon Black Phoenix had ceased its pursuit, Eldrin decided against risking the activation of the Abyssal Pearl. He immediately traversed the chaotic void and caught up with the others.

Seeing Eldrin (Person Name) following behind them, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Xingxuan Luo handed over the Celestial Soul Fruit Tree to Eldrin (Person Name), exclaiming in boundless admiration, "Congratulations, fellow Daoist, for securing a legacy foundation for your ancient sect."

Eldrin smiled faintly at the words but said nothing more.

It was only then that Luo Xingxuan still mistakenly believed he was a direct descendant of the Great Luo Ancient Sect.

However, Eldrin had no intention of explaining, for even if he did, the other party might not believe him. After all, it had long been a tradition among many ancient sects to allow their direct disciples to roam freely and grow through their own journeys, without relying on the prestige of their sect.

Some ancient sects even refused to acknowledge their disciples until they achieved the Great Luo realm, lest their Great Luo True Seeds fall prey to others' schemes.

The more enemies 1 has, the more powerful a Primordial Sect becomes, and the more deeply concealed the identities of its core direct disciples tend to be.

Eldrin knew full well he was not a direct disciple of the Great Luo Ancient Sect, yet he offered no explanation. After all, being misunderstood by others could serve as an additional layer of protection.

To return to our story, after obtaining the Heaven-Soul Fruit Tree, Eldrin (Person Name) stored it away with immense joy.

He said nothing more, merely smiling as he spoke, "The Chaotic Tide is about to begin. There's no need for us to linger any longer. We should return early."

Seeing this, everyone’s expressions turned grave as they swiftly made their way back.

The 6 of them journeyed relentlessly through the primordial chaos, depleting their spiritual power at great cost to traverse the turbulent void. Finally, just before the chaotic tides erupted in full force, they reached the boundaries of the 3,000 Immortal Domains.

The 2 parties parted ways in the Violet Sun Immortal Realm. After the 3 Flower Goddess Palace members had departed, Eldrin gazed at the Celestial Maiden and Old Ancestor Tianya, saying, "I shall first return to the Qingcang Immortal Realm to fetch the Soul-Nourishing Wood for you."

"Take this ambergris for your cultivation. We shall distribute the other treasures upon our return."

Hearing this, both of them nodded in agreement. As they collected the ambergris from the Primordial Chaos Sky Whale, the Celestial Maiden spoke again, "Make haste on your journey, but remember—after provoking the Golden Crow tribe this time, you must exercise extreme caution."

Seeing this, Eldrin (Person Name) said calmly, "Rest assured. During my absence, you 2 must remember not to leave the Purple Sun Immortal Domain (Location Name) under any circumstances."

"Hmm, we know."

After giving instructions to the 2, Eldrin did not linger.

He immediately returned to the Chaos Sea, using the cover of the chaotic tides and the power of the Guixu Pearl to make his way back to the Guixu Heavenly Realm.

The moment Eldrin returned, Lyra had already noticed. She couldn't contain her delight upon seeing him and exclaimed, "How come you've returned so early this time?"

"I intend to elevate 2 Soul-Nurturing Woods to serve as your soul cultivation treasures."

Eldrin smiled and began explaining to her the key insights of cultivating the Soul Altar breakthrough.

After hearing this, Lyra (Person Name) nodded involuntarily and said, "With the Soul-Nourishing Wood, our progress in breaking through the Soul Divinity Heavenly Barrier will undoubtedly accelerate greatly."

"With the addition of the 7-Colored Immortal Pearl (Spiritual Object), both our primordial spirits and magical power have broken through the 9 limits ahead of time. If we then reverse-cultivate the 3 great heavenly trials—physical body, the Great Dao, and the Dao Fruit—our speed will undoubtedly increase dramatically."

"Yes."

Eldrin nodded and said, "If you could reach the Fourth or Fifth Tribulation Realm before the kalpa's descent, you might have been of great assistance to me."

Seeing this, Lyra (Person Name) spoke up, "The Soul-Nurturing Wood is no trouble. Our clan still has some preserved specimens. I'll fetch 2 plants for you."

With that said, Lyra (Person Name) hurried away and soon returned with 2 Soul-Nurturing Trees, both at the level of low-grade Primordial Ancient Trees.

For a low-grade Primordial Tree to advance to the highest grade, it would normally require at least dozens if not over a 100 cosmic kalpas of time, with only a slim hope of ultimately achieving ascension.

Fortunately, Eldrin possessed the Heaven and Earth Primordial Vial to accelerate his growth, along with the Primordial Purple Qi to break through his ultimate bottlenecks, making his advancement remarkably straightforward.

Thus, Eldrin decisively activated the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi Vessel, continuously refining the Innate Soul-Nourishing Wood. After expending 2 strands of Primordial Hongmeng Purple Qi, he finally succeeded in elevating the Innate Soul-Nourishing Wood.

Supreme Primordial Soul-Nourishing Wood.

Gazing at the Ancient Primordial Tree before him, Eldrin (Person Name) murmured with a trace of delight.

With decisive action, he felled the ancient tree and extracted its core—the essence-rich divine wood—obtaining 9 substantial segments of Soul-Nurturing Wood.

"A single tree divided into 9 segments—this is already a considerable amount."

Looking at the 9 segments of Soul-Nourishing Wood, Lyra (Person Name) could not help but exclaim with joy.

Eldrin also smiled and nodded. This supreme-grade Innate Soul-Nourishing Wood was exceptionally rare, as most of the soul-nourishing wood available on the market consisted of mere small fragments.

Although the small piece of Soul-Nurturing Wood also had some effect on cultivating the primordial spirit, its efficacy was approximately 30 percent lower than that of a larger piece.

However, if a single Soul-Nurturing Wood were divided into smaller segments, it could yield 20-4 pieces. At a value of 3 100 wisps of innate qi each, the total would amount to an astonishing profit.

If the Soul-Nurturing Wood were divided into larger segments, although the cultivation effect would be improved, it could only be split into 9 pieces at most.

Few cultivators could afford large pieces of Soul-Nourishing Wood, making them difficult to sell at high prices. Consequently, smaller segments of Soul-Nourishing Wood were far more marketable and considerably more cost-effective.

Thus, within the 3 1000 immortal realms, it was exceedingly rare to find Great Severance Soul-Nourishing Wood available for sale. Generally speaking, such treasures were exclusively supplied internally by the Great Luo Ancient Sect.

Eldrin found the cost of cultivating Soul-Nurturing Wood to be remarkably low. Since these woods were exclusively for the use of their own allies, there was no need to be frugal. Thus, he decisively divided them into substantial segments of Soul-Nurturing Wood.

The Old Man of the World's Edge and the Celestial Maiden each claimed a segment.

"I, along with Lyra, Qing Ji, Lila, Zi Ji, and Seraphina Qu, each require a portion—that will take up 8 segments of Soul-Nourishing Wood."

"Considering that there are still Ancestor Qiyuan, Ancestor Qing, Kael (Person Name), Ethan (Person Name), Sage Elder Xianzhang, Sage Elder Xianqing, and Sage Disciple Xianzhu among others, a single Soul-Nourishing Wood is far from sufficient."

Eldrin murmured inwardly, then decisively refined another strand of Primordial Hongmeng Purple Qi, nurturing a supreme-grade Primordial Soul-Nourishing Wood.

In total, there were 18 segments of Innate Soul-Nourishing Wood. Eldrin took 3 segments for himself, then instructed Lyra: "After our clansmen have used what they need, any remaining Soul-Nourishing Wood should be shared with our old friends from the Ancient Ruins and Celestial Abyss."

Lyra (Person Name) let out a soft sigh upon hearing this. "You," she said, "are too sentimental. How could you part with such a priceless treasure and give it to them?"

"Alas."

Eldrin smiled faintly and shook his head. "Though they can no longer offer significant assistance now, they remain comrades who once fought alongside us."

"During the great tribulation of old, when the Sky Prison tribe and the 1000 Dragons Lake Lord launched their assault, had it not been for their assistance, we would likely have suffered grievous losses, perhaps even faced the risk of utter defeat."

"A drop of kindness deserves a river in return. Now that we are no longer who we used to be, we ought to extend our support to those old friends within our means."

At this point, Eldrin still chuckled and said, "If you can't bear to part with them, just have them write an IOU. Should circumstances allow in the future, they can always repay you then."

Hearing this, Lyra (Person Name) couldn't help but shake her head with a smile. "Now I understand," she said. "As long as 1 becomes your friend, they'll never be at a disadvantage."

Eldrin smiled faintly, yet refrained from further comment.

While being his friend would never leave 1 at a disadvantage, earning that friendship was no simple feat.

He had never been 1 to indiscriminately play the saint. Those from his past who received his particular care were either ones who had shown him kindness or comrades who had once fought side by side with him.

"Enough of that, let's take a look at this Celestial Soul Fruit Tree instead."

Eldrin recalled the Soulheaven Fruit Tree once more and retrieved it.

Lyra glanced at it and couldn't help but take a sharp breath. "With this artifact, plus that substantial segment of Innate Soul-Nourishing Wood, the Divine Soul Heavenly Barrier shouldn't pose much of a challenge for us anymore."

Eldrin nodded and replied, "I plan to plant it within the cosmos of the Returning Abyss, replacing a top-grade Heavenly Spiritual Root. This should allow my cultivation progress to accelerate more rapidly."

Lyra nodded, understanding the situation Eldrin was currently facing.

Eldrin's current predicament was that his realm had advanced too swiftly, yet his cultivation could not keep pace with his realm.

The current Eldrin had already shattered the 2 great heavenly barriers of physical form and magical power. By all reasoning, he should have reached the realm of a Second Tribulation Ancient Immortal, yet his cultivation remained stagnant at the Great Perfection stage of the Celestial Immortal.

The primary reason for this was that the accumulation of cultivation required time, and the speed at which the Abyssal Heaven could inhale and exhale chaos qi was limited.

As a result, although Eldrin's magical power had attained the qualitative essence of the 10 Limits realm, it had not yet reached a sufficient quantity, causing his cultivation realm to lag slightly behind.

For other ancient immortals, this was hardly a trouble at all, for once they broke through a realm, catching up in cultivation required at most a few 100 1000 years.

Eldrin forged 30-6 heavenly realms, his universe tenfold—nay, dozens of times vaster than that of an ordinary Great Perfection Celestial Immortal.

This endowed Eldrin with a foundational mana density that was at least 10 to several dozen times greater than that of a peak-stage Celestial Immortal of the same realm. However, it also meant that elevating his cultivation level would require a considerable amount of time.

Of course, that wasn't the main issue either. The primary concern was that Eldrin's cultivation realm was advancing far too rapidly.

For other Celestial Immortals at the Great Perfection stage seeking to break through to the Ancient Immortal realm, most would remain at this level for over 10 million years, accumulating ample time to refine their cultivation to perfection.

To this day, it had been less than 1 million years since Eldrin (Person Name) broke through to the late-stage Celestial Immortal realm. Even with the Innate 5 Elements Gourd (Magic Treasure) using its own essence to help him save a million years of cultivation time, it was still far from enough to elevate his cultivation to the Ancient Immortal realm.

This troubled Eldrin somewhat. Although he lacked no spiritual power within the Chaotic Sea, advancing his cultivation to the Ancient Immortal realm would still grant him a slight increase in combat prowess.

By then, Eldrin should be able to harness his own magic power to activate the Primordial 7 Treasures Gourd, unleashing the full might of this set of primordial ancient treasures.

With the power of the 7 Primordial Calabashes, Eldrin dared not claim to rival a 7-Tribulation Ancient Immortal, but achieving invincible combat prowess below that realm should hardly be difficult.

Having grasped this point, Lyra (Person Name) couldn't help but remark, "With this supreme-grade Primordial Ancient Tree, your cultivation progress should accelerate considerably."

"I reckon within 5 100 1000 years, my cultivation should break through to the Ancient Immortal realm."

Eldrin gave a slight nod and arrived at the Return Abyss, where he planted the Heaven Soul Fruit Tree. He then continuously nourished it with Primordial Spirit Water to accelerate its maturation.

After 9 consecutive cycles of forced maturation, Eldrin had obtained a total of 72 Supreme Soul Fruits.

However, when Eldrin (Person Name) attempted to catalyze the tenth batch, he discovered that despite accelerating the Heavenly Soul Tree’s age by several kalpas, it stubbornly refused to produce a tenth harvest of Heavenly Soul Fruits.

Eldrin then performed a quick finger-calculation and remarked with some regret, "After 9 consecutive forced maturation cycles, the Heaven-Soul Fruit Tree's vital essence has been severely depleted. It cannot undergo another acceleration in the foreseeable future."

Just as an old tree struggles to blossom, the root cause lies in insufficient nourishment. Even primordial spiritual water cannot replenish its depleted foundational essence.

"The next time you wish to hasten the ripening of a supreme-grade Soul Heaven Fruit, you must either pay a tremendous price to replenish its foundational essence or wait for the duration of a kalpa."

Chapter 1: The Discarded Prodigy Cloudpeak Sect, Outer Gate Disciple Quarter. Lin Xuan sat cross-legged on his worn meditation cushion, his face pale as paper. Beads of cold sweat dotted his forehead while chaotic spiritual energy swirled violently around him. "Failed... yet again." He let out a bitter laugh, slowly unclenching his fists where crescent-shaped marks dug deep into his palms. "3 years. For 3 years, my cultivation hasn't advanced a single step." Once hailed as the most gifted disciple Cloudpeak Sect had seen in a century, he now languished at the third layer of Qi Refining—the very same stage he'd reached 3 years prior when some inexplicable blockage had arrested his progress. Knock, knock. A series of impatient raps came from the door before it swung open without waiting for response. A blue-robed steward entered, his expression frosty as he tossed a jade slip onto the table. "Lin Xuan, the Sect Leader has decreed: your monthly spirit stone allocation will be reduced to 10, effective immediately." The steward's tone carried undisguised scorn. "The sect cannot afford to waste resources on... stagnant talent." Lin Xuan's body stiffened, but he merely nodded silently. 10 spirit stones—barely enough to sustain basic cultivation, let alone attempt another breakthrough. After the steward left, Lin Xuan reached for the jade slip. Just as his fingers brushed its cool surface, a searing pain shot through his skull. Visions flooded his mind—celestial battles, crumbling constellations, a crimson moon weeping blood. When the visions cleared, he found his consciousness transported to a vast, star-dusted void. At its center floated an ancient bronze mirror, its surface etched with mysterious patterns that seemed to contain the very secrets of creation. "Finally... after 10 1000 years of waiting, the fated 1 has arrived." An archaic voice, heavy with the weight of millennia, echoed through the cosmic expanse. "I am the Mirror of Eternal Truth, keeper of forgotten knowledge and lost arts." The mirror's surface rippled, projecting streams of luminous text: [Heavenly Dao Scripture - Lost Supreme Cultivation Method] [9 Revolutions Nirvana Art - Peerless Body Refining Technique] [Myriad Worlds Alchemy Compendium - Complete Pill Formulations] Lin Xuan stared, breath catching in his throat. These were legendary arts lost since time immemorial, any 1 of which could ignite wars among cultivation clans. "Senior," he addressed the mirror with cupped fists, "may I ask why you've chosen me?" "The Heavenly Dao operates in mysterious ways," the mirror's voice resonated. "Your 3 years of stagnation were but tempering for this destined encounter. Now, the question remains: are you prepared to walk the path of true cultivation?" A surge of emotion welled in Lin Xuan's chest—3 years of repressed frustration, humiliation, and dwindling hope transforming into unwavering determination. "I am." As the words left his lips, the bronze mirror erupted in blinding light, its ancient patterns swirling like living constellations before converging into a single beam that pierced directly between his brows. Outside, the setting sun painted Cloudpeak Mountain in hues of gold and crimson. Within his humble quarters, Lin Xuan opened eyes that now shimmered with starlight. The discarded prodigy had embarked upon a new path. The world of cultivation would soon learn that some stars shine brightest after enduring the longest nights.