"What are you doing here?"
By the edge of the Nine Yin River, Wei Tianchen had constructed a temporary shelter from the bones of an unidentified giant beast, forming a makeshift array.
"I was worried you might run into danger."
"You lie so naturally it sounds like the truth." Wei Tianchen chuckled. "If that kind of nonsense could establish the Dao and prove it to heaven and earth, you'd already be at the God King Realm."
"Old Physician, don't be so harsh. Isn't it said that a doctor should have compassion? How could you think of me that way?" Zhao Xing's eyes fell on Wei Tianchen's leg bone. There, a patch of black stood out clearly. "See? You're injured. I wasn't wrong to worry."
Wei Tianchen removed his lower leg bone and burned it to ashes. Then he pulled out a replacement from his bone ring and reattached it.
Judging by how practiced he was, this wasn't his first time doing it.
Zhao Xing stared at the burned remains of the poisoned bone and thought for a moment. "Lately, in your explorations of the Nine Yin River, haven't you been unusually unlucky? The poison gas you usually use has turned into a burden instead, even harming yourself."
"How do you know that?" Wei Tianchen was surprised.
In his years of combat, he had constantly gathered "bone poisons" to temper himself. Controlling poison was his main method of attack.
His current bone body was no longer a Sunlight Bone Body, but a special kind called the Heavenly Poison Bone Body.
This was a bone cultivation technique Wei Tianchen had developed himself in the Divine Domain.
But recently, luck hadn't been on his side. He'd been exploring the Nine Yin River for years, and while there were gains, he kept suffering inexplicable bouts of going berserk.
Wei Tianchen had suspected his self-created method was flawed—but now Zhao Xing's words planted a new doubt in his mind.
"It's not your cultivation method that's the problem," Zhao Xing said thoughtfully. "It's your fortune."
"You mean fortune?" Wei Tianchen clearly didn't believe it. "Impossible."
"Think about it." Zhao Xing said, "This poisoning… doesn't it always happen after passing through a particular part of the Nine Yin River?"
Wei Tianchen shot up. Clearly, Zhao Xing's words triggered a realization.
The fire seed crackled, casting a vivid reflection.
The river surged and twisted, as if ink had been poured into it. Islands faded in and out of sight.
The currents had no fixed pattern—no north-south or east-west flow—just chaos, like black dragons meandering aimlessly between islands.
"You're right," Wei Tianchen said. "Three berserk incidents in seven years—that's definitely not normal. Every time I pass through that area of the Nine Yin River, I lose control of my bone poisons."
"At first, I thought my technique was still incomplete. The symptoms were minor. But how could it be caused by fortune?"
Zhao Xing raised his hand. The green flames faded, revealing a purple finger bone.
"Old Physician, you should know Fortune Observation Technique. Can't you tell how strange this bone is?"
Wei Tianchen remained unmoved. "I don't know how to observe fortune."
"That's impossible. You gave the Great Zhou a treasure of fortune."
Wei Tianchen sighed. "Yes, I gave them a treasure of fortune. But I never learned fortune techniques myself. I once swore before the statue of the Glazed Emperor that I'd never touch the path of becoming a god through fortune or cultivate any fortune-based methods."
"Why?" Now it was Zhao Xing's turn to be confused.
"Do you know how the Five Emperors Coins were made?" Wei Tianchen asked.
"The Five Emperors cast coins, sealing their own fortune into ancient coins, circulating them to protect the people," Zhao Xing replied.
"At first, yes," Wei Tianchen said. "The Five Fortune Coincasting Method was once seen as a way to bless all people. But later, things changed. It became a source of endless disaster."
Zhao Xing stayed silent, listening intently.
"The forging method behind the Five Fortune Coins was based on weakening the strong and empowering the weak. The officials of the Heavenly Fortune Coin Bureau would fuse the coin materials into the bodies of the strong, letting the ancient coins absorb their fortune. After years, they'd extract them and put them into circulation."
"That's why they were called god-forged coins."
Zhao Xing's expression changed. "Then doesn't that mean—"
Wei Tianchen nodded. "No technique is inherently good or evil. It's how you use it."
"When fortune is upon you, everything becomes smoother. Cultivation becomes easier, and obstacles vanish. It's a shortcut to power."
"Everyone wants shortcuts. But once the Heavenly Fortune Coin Bureau leaked their secrets, everything changed. Officials at all levels began drawing power from the fortune coins for themselves. Eventually, some grew impatient with the wait and started slaughtering entire cities, extracting the fortune of the people to forge coins."
"Some even achieved godhood through fortune. Since fortune naturally favors the strong, the more power someone had, the more good luck they enjoyed. Even if they committed monstrous crimes, they avoided judgment. Instead, they rose higher and higher. Even the Divine Emperor was deceived."
"From that point on, this method became the root of chaos. By the time it was corrected, countless powerful figures had already fled to the territories of the demon race or the barren lands."
"The nation was left devastated. For generations afterward, people were born with weak fortune, creating a huge gap in strength."
Wei Tianchen sighed. "In the Five Emperors Era, aside from the strict control during the Xuanzu period, the other four emperors all faced massive turmoil because of this method."
Zhao Xing was stunned. He hadn't expected the Five Emperors Era to hide such a dark secret. Only an old monster like Wei Tianchen would know these things so clearly.
"Eventually, fortune cultivation methods were completely banned and discarded. The Divine Emperor was so furious he even severed the path to godhood through fortune."
"He severed the path to godhood?"
A spark flared in Zhao Xing's mind as the fire danced before him.
"I cultivate the Straw Puppet Technique alongside Zuo Qiyu and Jin Yan. Does that mean our great Dao is also being blocked?"
Wei Tianchen looked at him. "You must've seen my notes in the Scripture Pavilion. At the time, I was only speculating. But it's likely that Gu Tianyang created this technique to avoid tribulations through fortune."
"As for the details, Gu Tianyang is dead, and I never cultivated the technique myself, so I don't know much more."
Zhao Xing sank into thought.
Gu Tianyang was the elder brother of Gu Luohuo. Both were descendants of the Celestial God Gu Xiao.
Zhao Xing had heard of Gu Xiao when he first entered the Yuanhai Ancient Kingdom, but the name had long since faded from memory.
However, Gu Xiao had also appeared in Wang Tianzhi's records.
He once said that a "Xuanhuang Divine Sect" had emerged in the Xuanhuang Realm—suspected to be a rebranded version of the old Xuantian Sect.
At the time, Wang Tianzhi found this odd. After all, the Heavenly Timing Sect—also known as the Xuantian Sect, or the Xuantian Academy—had always revered Yuntian Dao as their founding patriarch.
"You know Fortune Observation Technique," Wei Tianchen interrupted Zhao Xing's thoughts. "What did you see?"
"I suspect this bone belonged to a Fortune God," Zhao Xing said, flexing his index finger slightly.
"No wonder—" Wei Tianchen suddenly understood.
The Dao of Fortune followed a simple rule: when two people are involved in the same event, the one with higher fortune gets the better outcome, while the other suffers.
Of course, someone like Wei Tianchen, a powerful cultivator, had a naturally high fortune level to begin with, which gave him a floor—he could only be so unlucky.
That explained why, over the past seven years, he'd gone berserk three times. But each time had only caused a localized outbreak of poison in a single bone. He could just throw it away and regrow another without issue.
Zhao Xing had asked whether those incidents happened only after Wei Tianchen visited a certain place. It turned out Wei Tianchen had unknowingly entered the territory of a Fortune God.
"That Fortune God may be dead," Zhao Xing said, "or maybe because you left quickly, the influence didn't spread."
"When I saw this finger bone, I got worried something might happen to you, so I came to find you right away."
Wei Tianchen clapped. "You actually turned it around. Emperor Tianning, you really are a piece of work."
Zhao Xing was speechless. The old man's distrust of him was bottomless.
Just because he got tricked once back in the Yuanhai Ancient Kingdom, did it really leave him that traumatized?
Wei Tianchen raised a finger. The Dao Enlightenment Headband detached from Zhao Xing's head, shrank down, and became a ring on his finger.
"Huh? What does this mean—" Zhao Xing touched his head, confused.
Was Wei Tianchen actually moved by his concern?
"The spatial structure of the Nine Yin River is chaotic," Wei Tianchen explained. "If we get too far apart, I might not be able to help you. In that case, the Dao Enlightenment Headband would self-destruct, which wouldn't help us in exploring this place."
Previously, it hadn't self-destructed because Wei Tianchen had left a flame clone in Bone Support City, anchoring the headband.
Zhao Xing figured that Wei Tianchen had developed at least a bit of trust in him.
Of course, trust likely came from necessity. Zhao Xing couldn't leave this strange White Bone Divine Domain on his own—he needed both Wei Tianchen and the Bamboo Sword.
Even if he tried to run, where would he go? Emperor-level cultivators were everywhere, and even demigods at the king level had been slain by the dozens in recent years. If Zhao Xing wandered off alone, he'd probably die fast.
On the Nine Yin River, a chill wind howled, cutting through to the bone.
Even a Sunlight Bone Body couldn't shine here. Only certain special bone types could resist it.
Wei Tianchen held up a bone shield, pale blue in color. It had been made from the remains of a special bone-bodied lifeform, able to resist the freezing wind of the Nine Yin River.
"Can you pinpoint the location?" Wei Tianchen had spent two and a half months guiding Zhao Xing through the islands from memory.
"No sign of it yet," Zhao Xing shook his head.
"The spots where I fished over the past few years are limited. Should be easy to narrow it down. If it's not here, there are only two places left."
"Let's go check them," Zhao Xing nodded.
He used both the Fortune Observation Technique and his personal panel to survey the area.
There was nothing particularly notable using the observation technique, but Wei Tianchen's fortune level had started to fluctuate.
Wei Tianchen's fortune level was Derivation Twenty-Four, but with the help of certain treasures, it had been boosted by five levels, reaching Derivation Twenty-Nine!
That was just one step away from thirty, a major threshold.
Once he crossed that line, he'd have fortune on par with figures like Gu Luohuo and Bo Wei.
At that level, his fortune would be like a vast ocean—immune to small waves and disturbances.
Only massive danger or pursuit by supreme forces could shake it.
Otherwise, he'd remain in a state of constant good fortune, rarely encountering misfortune.
Zhao Xing kept monitoring Wei Tianchen's fortune. If it fluctuated, it would prove they had entered the target area.
Two and a half more months passed.
Suddenly, Wei Tianchen's fortune level dropped.
From Derivation Twenty-Nine, it plunged to Derivation Twenty!
A full nine-level drop!
One of the rules of fortune: a large fluctuation in innate fortune usually indicates a major shift in luck—good or bad.
"We're here!" Zhao Xing alerted him right away.
"There are five reefs below. Which one is it?"
"Take a few steps."
Wei Tianchen suspected the kid was getting back at him.
He flew around with Zhao Xing, circling the five reefs again and again.
Zhao Xing compared the changes in fortune level across his panel.
But he discovered that all five reefs produced the same effect—the area uniformly reduced fortune by nine levels.
As for himself, his fortune remained unaffected. It might be because the purple index finger bone in his hand shared the same origin as the source.
"They're all the same. These five reefs are within the affected range."
Zhao Xing and Wei Tianchen landed without hesitation.
As they descended onto one of the five islands to investigate, from another direction, a black beast bone ship sailed through the air toward them.
Inside the grand hall on the ship, a group of pink skeletons in ceremonial robes waved flags and put on a show of song and dance.
At the top sat a throne. A skeletal hand tapped lightly in rhythm with the music. The true spirit flame flickered and danced along, as if taking part in the performance.
The ruler's upper body was still fully skeletal, but flesh had grown over the feet and ankles.
The flesh seemed to flow as it moved to the music. When the dance reached its climax—
Two masses of flesh suddenly detached from the feet and began climbing upward along the ankles.
The fascia formed battlefront lines, while the patches of flesh resembled tiny soldiers. They waged war on the leg bones, launching an uphill assault.
But just as the flesh reached the knees—
Boom!
A loud detonation rang out.
The ruler's fingers tapped faster. All the pink skeletons in the hall had their soul flames shoot out of their bodies and rush into the decaying flesh, patching it up rapidly. A second wave of assault was immediately launched.
Yet as soon as the flesh reached the knees again, those "soldiers" seemed to be struck by an overwhelming force.
The music abruptly stopped. The army collapsed like a mountain falling.
The ruler watched as the flesh retreated all the way back to the feet. She tried to force another advance, but only managed to hold the line at the ankles.
"Sigh—" a soft sigh echoed out. "Fu Mengzhen, oh Fu Mengzhen… when will you finally be free?"
The white bone ruler stood before a bronze mirror, with ornate bone accessories arranged on a nearby table. She stroked her skeletal face, lost in self-pity.
"In the Yang Realm I was a peerless beauty, admired by countless people. And now I've been reduced to this hideous form."
The Dao of dance relied heavily on aesthetics. But every time she saw her skull in the mirror, Fu Mengzhen felt disgust rise in her heart, even her Dao heart was affected.
"Master, we've arrived at the Nine Yin River," a voice called from outside. A Sunlight-level skeleton leaning on a long spear stood at the door.
"Understood. Prepare my ceremonial procession," Fu Mengzhen replied calmly.
"Yes, ma'am."
Once the subordinate left, Fu Mengzhen's gaze fell upon a piece of fur laid before the mirror.
Red fluff curled gently, forming tangled characters.
Fire Origin script!
It was the exclusive script of the Fire Origin Temple.
"It took a lot of effort to exchange this hidden location at the Nine Yin River from the temple. I don't even know what's on this Five Fortune Island. Just a single coordinate cost me fifty thousand units of Fire Seed Source."
Fu Mengzhen carefully donned her accessories. When the beast bone ship slowly came to a halt, she stepped off the vessel surrounded by a procession of lavishly dressed skeletons and set foot on Five Fortune Island.
"Hm? Someone arrived before me?!"
Her good mood was immediately ruined.
"Damn that Nan Ying Zunzhe—did he sell the information to someone else too?!"
"Zhao Xing, someone's here," Wei Tianchen said, pausing in his step. They were exploring a scaly, skeletal mountain range. He held a flickering star lantern in one hand, standing at the mouth of a cave.
"Who?" Zhao Xing leapt backward, hiding behind Wei Tianchen.
Wei Tianchen pulled out a dual-layered mirror shaped like a bagua. Eight streams of gray mist swirled around it before forming a clear image of the beast bone ship in the sky.
It was a divine artifact used by fate masters!
Even Zhao Xing couldn't help but marvel at how wealthy Wei Tianchen was. How many divine artifacts had he already seen the old man use? Had he raided a god emperor's treasury back in the day?
Given his status as a royal physician, access to palace stores made sense. Could it be that, like Zhao Xing inheriting the Grand Dream Academy, Wei Tianchen had inherited a divine dynasty's treasure vault?
"Huh? She's regrown flesh… and she has robes too?" Wei Tianchen's eyes lit up instantly.
In the thirty-plus years since they took over Bone Support City, all their spoils had been made from bone materials.
Bone spears, bone sabers, bone helmets and armor.
Or else it was soul artifacts made from bone spirit stones and soul crystals.
But robes required silk from plants or furs from beasts.
That meant blood-and-flesh lifeforms. Naturally grown plants.
In other words, this damned place still had things from the Yang Realm!
Yet in all these years, Wei Tianchen had never seen a high-quality, non-bone lifeform.
As for the rumored location of the Fire Origin Temple—he had no clue.
The southern continent was shrouded in mists, with poisonous swamps and endless gloom. His exploration of the Nine Yin River might've just been an attempt to reach a broader world. With the river as a reference point, it was better than wandering blindly.
When Zhao Xing saw Fu Mengzhen's image in the mirror, he immediately grasped Wei Tianchen's state of mind.
He stomped. "I'll handle the small fry around her."
Wei Tianchen looked down and saw the ground rapidly forming a concealed underground palace array under Zhao Xing's feet.
"Emperor Tianning, you're awfully practiced at this. Done this kind of thing often, haven't you?"
He only asked the question, but Zhao Xing was already moving—acting on pure instinct.
"Come on, old royal physician. We know each other too well for games," Zhao Xing muttered as he got to work.
Wei Tianchen let out a helpless chuckle.
The bone body on him rapidly turned black as streams of toxic essence were drawn out. They flowed through Zhao Xing's underground palace tunnel, spreading across the island.
When it came to ambushes and traps, the Si Nong of the Original Self Sect was a master. He could turn his troop formations into forests, blending perfectly into the environment and fooling nearly everyone.
But the Earth Advantages Sect wasn't far behind. Techniques like the Earth Palace Method, Hidden Earth Method, and Mysterious Soil Method were all excellent for sneak attacks.
Especially in a place like the White Bone Divine Domain, where the land merged with both the Southern Continent and the Netherworld. The geomantic veins were all yin-aligned. After living here for over thirty years, Zhao Xing had grown familiar with the terrain. All of his Earth Advantages Sect techniques had adapted to the local environment and taken on an underworld-like quality.
After he mastered the Seed Law Domain from Ji Lu, most Earth Advantages techniques evolved into samsara-level secret arts.
The spells of the Primordial Hill were complete and powerful. The Demonic Earth Palace, Yaoguang Hidden Earth, and Core Fracture Soil were already at samsara secret art tier.
Though Zhao Xing no longer had Ji Lu's cultivation, that didn't mean he couldn't cast Earth Advantages methods. With Azure Flower mana as an amplifier, he could still use them. These arts had already surpassed Ji Lu's level. At his current stage, whether he had Ji Lu's third-layer cultivation or not didn't matter—unless he reached the fourth layer and transformed the Seed Law Domain into the Seed Law World.
The twelve Earth Palace spells of the Primordial Hill each corresponded to one of the twelve demon gods. Back when Zhao Xing explored the Bai Han Realm, he had four soul fragments out in the world. One oversaw the daily work on the Yanxing Ancient Path. Another searched for Tianshi Sect techniques. A third returned to the Original Realm. The last one traveled to the Primordial Hill.
The one sent to the Primordial Hill studied the Life Earth Palace method under Meishan Zunzhe, the current mountain head there.
By the time Zhao Xing reached the second trial island of Bai Han Realm, he had already learned the Life Earth Palace method. After that, he moved on to other Earth Advantages techniques.
When Zhao Xing left the Bai Han Realm, his main body and the soul fragment had exchanged insights.
What Zhao Xing now possessed was not just a single earth tactic.
"The Demonic Earth Palace taught to me by Emperor Hongshan back then was just the basics of the twelve Demonic Earth Palaces—a high-level foundational secret art."
"The full name of the Life Earth Palace should actually be the Life Demonic Earth Palace Method." As Zhao Xing set things up, he recalled the scenes of learning with Meishan Zunzhe through his soul fragment.
The Life Demonic Earth Palace Method was based on research into the ancient god Agaluo, one of the born deities.
Of course, the method couldn't be named Agaluo Earth Palace or Life Demonic Earth Palace. That would make the Primordial Hill seem like some evil cult. So it was simply called the Life Earth Palace.
The one Zhao Xing was deploying now was the Annihilation Earth Palace Method.
Its source lay in the demon god "Jimo," one of the twelve.
Jimo was born during the "Era of Extinction" in a top-tier great world. Technically, that era had a very weak Dao presence, and all material life was undergoing destruction. It should've been nearly impossible for a "born deity" to emerge.
But Jimo was different. His world had collided with a source realm. Bathed in extinction, he was nourished by the source and born as a natural god within destruction.
The Jimo demon god mastered the Dao of Destruction, yet possessed extremely tenacious vitality. Even now, the Primordial Hill could only trap him—they couldn't kill him.
Rumble~
The earth veins shifted. The land rose slightly, like a minor earthquake.
This change was barely noticeable amid the chaotic Nine Yin River. It was nearly impossible to distinguish whether it was artificial.
Since Zhao Xing's techniques had been adjusted to fit the White Bone Divine Domain, the formation of this Annihilation Earth Palace looked entirely natural.
Unseen and unnoticed, it manifested beneath the island.
Its inner walls were carved with divine Dao impressions of the Jimo demon god—scenes recorded during his roars and use of innate secret arts in battle.
Inside the dark underground palace, several wisps of gray mist drifted about. Wei Tianchen's true spirit poison happened to complement the Earth Palace perfectly.
"One palace might not be enough. Merging two arts is safer."
Zhao Xing hadn't gotten a direct look at Fu Mengzhen, so he didn't know her realm. But the fact that she had regrown flesh confirmed she was at least a demigod.
When anticipating enemies, it was better to overestimate than underestimate.
"Burning Earth Palace, rise!"
Golden light surged from beneath the ground. A pyramid-shaped Earth Palace emerged outside the Annihilation Earth Palace.
Combining two arts caused the difficulty to spike. Zhao Xing's Azure Flower mana was drained in an instant.
"You've really come a long way," Wei Tianchen remarked, visibly surprised. After thirty-some years, Zhao Xing had reached the level of an Eight Tribulation Emperor. Wei Tianchen had assumed he only had the realm but lacked the techniques.
He hadn't expected this dual Earth Palace move to be so impressive.
"Old physician, less talk. That woman clearly isn't some small fry." Zhao Xing wasn't fond of chatting during battle. If Wei Tianchen were in his party, Zhao Xing would've kicked him out after one fight.
"..." Wei Tianchen fell silent. A dignified demigod, yet for a moment he felt like Zhao Xing saw him as dead weight.