Outside the Suspended Coffin came the sound of water breaking, followed by the clatter of chains winding around it, and the coffin abruptly stopped.
Inside the coffin, Quinn Shepherd felt a stir in his heart and instantly realized that the Suspended Coffin had left the ancient well, now locked in place by chains.
The Suspended Coffin was about to open.
Annie quickly snuffed out her red lantern and glanced around. Suddenly, a mouth-shaped opening appeared overhead, letting in light from above and revealing the surroundings.
"I see you!" Heavenly Dragon King's massive head whipped its green whiskers, gleefully chasing after Aiden Starr.
Quinn also scanned the area, searching for Dragon-Qilin. He felt uneasy: "Fat Dragon couldn't have actually been eaten by Heavenly Dragon King, could he?"
Just then, Annie spotted Dragon-Qilin. "There!" she called, transforming into a blue sparrow and darting forward.
Quinn looked in the direction she flew and, sure enough, saw Dragon-Qilin curled up in a corner, sound asleep.
Annie grabbed Dragon-Qilin and shot toward the coffin's entrance, with Quinn hurrying after her.
Outside the Suspended Coffin, Quinn set foot on solid ground—only to see the radiant mist of Fallen-God Valley shrinking rapidly, all the seals here suddenly failing!
[Irrelevant navigation note skipped.]
Quinn made a snap decision and flew out with Annie, one ahead and one behind. Dragon-Qilin was already awake, instantly revealing his true form and carrying Quinn at full speed toward the exit.
The radiant mist that had filled Fallen-God Valley shrank to a tiny dot in mere moments. Aiden Starr, Lila Swallowfeather, and Heavenly Dragon King's massive head burst out of the Suspended Coffin and fled for the valley's edge—except Heavenly Dragon King's head wasn't fleeing, but chasing after them with jaws agape.
Buzz—
A blinding flash erupted. In an instant, the ancient well and Suspended Coffin were destroyed, the chains binding the coffin snapped one by one—whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—broken links hurled backward by the annihilating wave, streaking past Quinn and the others.
Standing atop Dragon-Qilin, Quinn looked back to see the mountains surrounding the ancient well and Suspended Coffin flattened, abysses filled in, and the terrifying annihilation wave triggering the Pioneer Emperor's sword imprints—dazzling sword-lights crisscrossing in every direction, terrifying to behold.
Dragon-Qilin roared, pushing his speed to the limit, quickly reaching the hanging bridge and leaping over it, racing straight out of the ruins.
He was about to slow down when Quinn barked, "Keep running!"
Dragon-Qilin kept up his frantic pace. Quinn glanced back, just in time to see the Pioneer Emperor's sword hanging above the bridge struck by annihilation light, erupting with sword-radiance.
Outside the valley, the radiant mist had already shrunk to a pinpoint. After the sword-light burst, that dot exploded once more.
As the saying goes, raise a dragon for a thousand days, use him in a single moment. This was the first time Quinn realized Dragon-Qilin could run so fast, and he was deeply relieved: "All that money I've spent on him was worth it..."
He rarely spent much money in daily life—wherever he went in Everpeace, food, clothing, and shelter cost him almost nothing. Ninety-nine percent of his expenses went into feeding Dragon-Qilin.
"You can stop now!"
Quinn called Dragon-Qilin to a halt and looked back. The annihilating light at Fallen-God Valley was still surging, though its power was receding.
"Aiden Starr probably survived—he's got too many tricks. As for Lila Swallowfeather and Heavenly Dragon King, that's harder to say."
His wounds were mostly healed. Aiden Starr seizing the Heaven-Guide Flesh Body forged by the Heavenly Court wasn't exactly a good thing, but it wasn't a disaster either.
The Heaven-Guide Flesh Body made by the Heavenly Court contained ancient god runes, forming what seemed like a perfect Divine Treasury and Heaven Palace system, able to wield the power of all the ancient gods.
That's something the lower realms' beings simply don't possess.
But it lacks the most crucial Celestial River Treasury, and the powers of Heaven Duke and Tu Bo are also incomplete.
Moreover, the Heaven-Guide Flesh Body is built on Dao Ancestor's macro-numerology, missing micro-numerology, so it's never truly perfect.
Even more crucially, Quinn had already copied the runes from the Heavenly Court Scripture-Vault Pavilion. Once Dao Lord Lucas Lin and Everpeace Dao Gate perfected the Grand Micro Numerology Canon, they could add the missing micro-numerology framework into those runes—then it would be truly perfect.
Aiden Starr only got the Heaven-Guide Flesh Body and could grasp a portion of its secrets at best. To truly achieve the perfect unity of flesh and Primordial Spirit, he was still far from it.
Suddenly, Heavenly Dragon King's enormous head rolled out of Fallen-God Valley. He tried to take flight, but couldn't—clearly, he'd been badly wounded.
The corpse-transformed head suddenly thrust out its dragon whiskers, bracing against the ground. The long whiskers acted like thick legs, propping up the massive head as it lumbered forward.
"I see you..."
The giant head loomed like a moving hill, grinning foolishly as it scanned the surroundings.
Each step made the ground quake—he was clearly searching for something to eat.
Quinn frowned. Now that Heavenly Dragon King had corpse-transformed, if he escaped, he'd become a scourge—devouring people everywhere. He had to be stopped.
But even the annihilation field hadn't killed Heavenly Dragon King. His power was truly terrifying.
"Heavenly Dragon King is on the same level as Autumn Cloud Phoenix—both are High Heaven Hall existences. How can I get rid of him?"
Quinn Shepherd pulled out the Star-Sand Atlas Aiden had given him and located Fallen-God Valley, then began searching nearby.
After the Primordial Realm’s seal broke, Aiden had visited countless places—only then could he draw such a detailed map.
Quinn’s eyes lit up as he spotted a nearby ancient ruin. He thought, "If I lure him into the ruins and let the mechanisms trap him, maybe that’s not a bad idea."
Just as he had this thought, a distant flash lit up and a black-backed, white-bellied swallow shot out of the light, landing and transforming back into Lila Swallowfeather, looking a bit unsteady.
Lila Swallowfeather immediately noticed him, her guard up and every sense alert.
Quinn offered a gentle smile, while his Sword Pill silently slipped from his Glutton Dragon Pouch and drilled into the ground without a sound.
Lila hurriedly produced a bare, glowing twig about three inches long and thrust it into the earth. Instantly, countless roots burst forth, weaving a dense net underground.
Above ground, the twig sprouted and branched rapidly, growing into a towering world-tree hundreds of yards tall in the blink of an eye.
"Is that a branch from the Origin-Root Tree?"
Quinn was startled, recalling his Sword Pill with a smile. "Sister Lila, I really would like to meet the Heavenly Emperor."
[Irrelevant navigation note skipped.]
Lila Swallowfeather hesitated for a moment, then reached out and uprooted the giant tree. In an instant, it shrank back into a three-inch twig.
"Shepherd Heavenly Venerable..."
Quinn quickly waved his hand, telling Dragon-Qilin to keep luring Heavenly Dragon King away. He turned and smiled, "Sister Lila, no need to stand on ceremony. Just call me Cult Master Quinn. 'Heavenly Venerable Shepherd' was half a joke, and the Heavenly Emperor probably never took it seriously—neither did I. In Everpeace, friend or foe, everyone calls me Cult Master Quinn."
Lila hesitated, then walked beside him and asked, "Cult Master Quinn, you used to be quite hostile to the Heavenly Emperor—even giving his sacred edict to a pig demon, and avoiding him at all costs. Why do you now want to seek him out?"
Dragon-Qilin charged ahead of Heavenly Dragon King's severed head, which instantly glowed green in its eyes and drooled corpse-water, chasing after them.
Quinn replied solemnly, "It's not a request—it's a meeting between equals. If the Heavenly Emperor still sees himself as vastly superior, then there's no need for this meeting at all."
Lila frowned slightly.
Quinn smiled, "The Heavenly Emperor used to want to control me, to have me in his grasp. How could I let him get his way? That's why I kept my distance. But if His Majesty can act as a collaborator, an ally, then we can meet and talk as equals."
Lila sneered, "Cult Master Quinn, with your current cultivation, you dare bargain with the Heavenly Emperor? Even if all of Everpeace joined you, you'd still have no qualifications to negotiate with His Majesty!"
Quinn smiled faintly: "I'm Shepherd Heavenly Venerable and the Netherworld Divine Son, holding the power to resurrect ancient gods. Why shouldn't I be able to negotiate with him? More importantly, he's dead and I'm alive. Without me as mediator, would Tu Bo let him live? The first to want him dead would be Tu Bo! With me as an intermediary, Tu Bo might just let him go. You can't make the decision—go ask the Heavenly Emperor yourself."
Lila's expression turned fierce; she clenched her teeth and said, "I'll go report this to His Majesty..."
"No need."
Quinn's gaze fell on the blessing halo behind her head, and he smiled, "Why bother leaving? Hasn't His Majesty been watching through that light all along? Isn't that right, Your Majesty?"
Lila was startled; the halo behind her head trembled, and a face appeared within the light, speaking in a low voice: "Heaven-Guide Venerable, we finally meet."
Quinn had Dragon-Qilin drag Heavenly Dragon King's head farther away as he smiled, "Then let me ask Your Majesty—are you willing to talk with me?"
The Heavenly Emperor's face in the halo fell silent for a moment, then said, "In the Umbral World, I will discuss it with you in detail."
Quinn's heart skipped a beat, but he nodded, "Two months from now, we'll meet in the Umbral World."
The face in Lila's halo faded away like blue smoke.
Lila let out a breath, but her eyes remained wary.
Quinn smiled warmly, "Don't be too trusting of him, or you might die without knowing why."
Lila steadied herself, bowed in thanks, then transformed back into a swallow and flew away, vanishing without a trace.
Quinn looked ahead—another ancient ruin rose up before him, its surroundings eerily empty, not even a demigod in sight. Clearly, everyone was afraid of this place.
"Let's hope this place can trap Heavenly Dragon King."
In the Heavenly Court’s Scripture-Vault Pavilion, the Dao Lord of the Heavenly Court Dao Gate ascended to the top floor, cutting a piece of flawless jade from the central pillar. Within the jade flickered the rune-constructed projection of a Heaven-Guide Flesh Body.
“Didn’t the Heavenly Court manufacture several Heaven-Guide Flesh Bodies recently?”
The Dao Lord shook his head, puzzled, and carried the jade down from the pavilion, muttering, “Why do they want to make another one now?”
Flame-Venerable was waiting below. Hearing him, he asked coldly, “Several Heaven-Guide Flesh Bodies? When did that happen?”
The Dao Lord hurriedly explained, "Last time when you came to have me project Heaven-Guide runes into the Creation artifact furnaces, several other ancient beings came after, saying they wanted extra Heaven-Guide Flesh Bodies to 'play with.'"
Flame-Venerable was briefly stunned, then laughed coldly, "Those old things are all up to no good!"
The Dao Lord dared not say more, and asked, "Should I send this piece of jade to the Creation artifact furnaces as well?"
Flame-Venerable nodded, his eyes flashing, "Who came to ask you for those bodies?"
The Dao Lord begged, "Venerable, please spare this old servant's life."
Flame-Venerable frowned but did not pursue the matter, saying, "Once it's made, deliver it to my palace... How many have they manufactured in total?"
"Nine, plus the original one—ten in total."
The Dao Lord added with a smile, "If we add this new one for Flame-Venerable, that makes eleven Heaven-Guide Flesh Bodies in existence."
[End of chapter.]