Foundation of the Heavenly Dao

The Demon Venerable's aged voice echoed in his sea of consciousness.

"Demon Venerable, are you sure no one has discovered this path?" Mo Bufan asked in his sea of consciousness while sprinting madly.

"Nonsense! This is an ancient secret. Other than this old master, who else could recognize this giant beast's esophagus?"

The Demon Venerable's remnant soul said arrogantly, "That Five-Colored Peacock is currently sound asleep, and the fools outside are still trying to break the formation. As long as you pass through this boundary membrane, the Primal Chaos Five Elements Lotus will be in your pocket!"

Hearing this, a savage smile appeared on Mo Bufan's pale face.

"Good! Once I establish a Heavenly Dao Foundation, I will definitely tear that bastard who destroyed my right arm into a thousand pieces!"

"I'll peel off his skin to make a lantern and grind his bones to dust to feed the dogs!!"

As he spoke, he had already rushed to the end of the tunnel.

A translucent membrane, as viscous as amniotic fluid, was right before his eyes.

Through the membrane, he could clearly see the grayish mass of primal chaos essence fluid above, as well as the swaying divine lotus in the center, which exuded a five-colored Dao rhythm.

The Primal Chaos Five Elements Lotus!

That was the key to the supreme Great Dao!

Mo Bufan's breathing instantly became rapid. The greed in his eyes almost overflowed, and even the intense pain of his severed arm seemed to vanish.

"Haha... As expected, no one is faster than me!"

"Heavenly Dao Foundation... it's mine! It's all mine!"

"That scum with the golden flames, once I successfully reach Foundation Establishment, I'll extract your soul, refine your spirit, and burn you as a sky lantern for a hundred years!!"

At this moment, he had even thought of the Dao title he would give himself after reaching Foundation Establishment.

He didn't notice at all that in the shadows less than three feet from the Five Elements Lotus, a pair of cold eyes was quietly watching him.

A sudden change occurred!

An afterimage erupted without warning from the shadows beneath the Five Elements Lotus!

A slender, powerful hand, as if transcending time and space, snatched ahead of him and firmly gripped the stem of the Five Elements Lotus!

Then, right in front of Mo Bufan's eyes, it ruthlessly—uprooted it!

"Who's there?!"

"Stop!!!"

Mo Bufan's eyes practically split open in fury, and it was as if a string in his mind snapped and broke!

He watched helplessly as the holy medicine he had dreamed of was uprooted right under his nose!

Whoosh!

Gu Yang grabbed the Five Elements Lotus, smoothly scooped it into a Spirit-Sealing Jade Box he had prepared beforehand, and with a click, locked and sealed it.

His movements were as smooth as flowing water.

Immediately after.

Gu Yang's figure didn't stop. He forcibly twisted his waist mid-air, and this long-charged kick was not aimed at Mo Bufan.

Instead, it viciously stomped onto the multicolored boulder nearby—the very pillow stone on which the Five-Colored Peacock was sleeping!

Boom!

The boulder shattered!

"You..."

Mo Bufan finally got a clear look at the person in front of him.

That face he hated to the bone, that gray-robed rogue cultivator who had ruined his right arm!

The distance between the two was mere inches.

His other hand had already crushed a Biluo Token.

The light of teleportation instantly enveloped him.

"This blame is quite heavy, hold onto it."

Gu Yang wore an apologetic expression. His voice was very soft, yet it exploded like thunder in Mo Bufan's ears.

The next second.

"Screech—!!!"

A bird's cry, filled with wake-up rage and monstrous killing intent, instantly overturned the entire Primal Chaos Pool!

The originally slumbering Five-Colored Peacock awakened.

It opened its crimson eyes, and the first thing it saw—

Was that broken hole.

Was that empty lotus pool.

And... Mo Bufan, frozen in a reaching posture.

"No!!!"

Mo Bufan let out a desperate, hoarse roar.

"It wasn't me!! He's setting me up!!!"

However, how could the furious Five-Colored Peacock understand human speech?

In its eyes, this despicable human not only stole its treasure but also struck an "I got it, what are you going to do about it" pose right in front of it!

Whoosh—

A five-colored divine light cascaded down like a reversed heavenly river, carrying an apocalyptic might as it viciously swept toward Mo Bufan!

"Demon Venerable, save me!!"

Mo Bufan screamed miserably. In his sea of consciousness, the Demon Venerable cursed "Idiot," and was forced to burn his soul power to prop up a shield.

Crack!

The Demon Venerable's soul power shield shattered.

Mo Bufan's entire body was blasted out of the hidden tunnel like a broken ragdoll, wildly spewing blood as he smashed heavily onto the open ground outside.

And at this moment.

It just so happened that the mist grand formation outside dissipated.

Dozens of wounded prodigies from various sects, who had painstakingly fought their way in, just looked up and saw this shocking scene:

The Primal Chaos Pool was empty.

The Five-Colored Peacock was going crazy.

And that blood-covered demonic cultivator from the Blood River Sect was being blasted out of the Primal Chaos Pool.

"The Primal Chaos Five Elements Lotus is gone!"

"It's him! He took the Primal Chaos Five Elements Lotus!"

"Damn it! We fought tooth and nail to break the formation, only for this guy to snatch the prize!"

"Let's attack together! Kill him!"

The crowd was agitated, and killing intent boiled over.

Countless flying swords, magical treasures, and talismans rained down on Mo Bufan.

Mo Bufan couldn't defend himself even if he had a hundred mouths. He was so angry that he spat out a mouthful of blood thirty feet high.

He never imagined that he, the dignified sole inheritor of the Blood River Sect, would one day take such a massive blame for an unknown rogue cultivator!

"Ahhh!!! I'm going to kill you!!!"

His mournful roar was drowned out in the sky full of spell radiance.

...

...

This was a nameless underground fissure in the northwest of Soul-Severing Valley.

The spatial fluctuations had just subsided, and the air was filled with a nauseating smell of sulfur and rotting mold.

"Pfft—"

As soon as Gu Yang landed, he spat out a mouthful of congested blood.

Although the random teleportation of the Biluo Token was overbearing and could ignore the secret realm's restrictions, the squeezing sensation of spatial tearing would likely turn anyone with a slightly weaker physical body into a puddle of mush upon landing.

He didn't care about wiping the blood from the corner of his mouth and immediately spread his divine sense out like a tide.

Within a radius of a hundred zhang, apart from a few Rotting Bone Poisonous Scorpions crawling in the shadows, there was no aura of any cultivator.

Safe.

Gu Yang quickly took out a few formation flags from his storage bag and skillfully inserted them into the surrounding rock walls.

Although it was just a simple Lesser Sumeru Concealment Formation that couldn't block the divine sense probing of late-stage Foundation Establishment experts, in this Soul-Severing Valley where spiritual energy was chaotic, it was enough to isolate most spying.

After doing all this, he slowly sat down against the cold, damp rock wall.

His heart was still beating violently in his chest, not out of fear, but out of—excitement.

It was the thrilling sensation of a gambler betting their entire fortune and ultimately taking all the winnings.

Gu Yang opened his palm. In the center of his palm, the sealed jade box lay quietly.

"Click."

With a light flick of his fingertip, the jade box opened.

Buzz—!

Inside the narrow fissure, the light suddenly dimmed.

It wasn't that the light had disappeared, but rather that it had been devoured.

That palm-sized Primal Chaos Five Elements Lotus floated quietly in the box. It was surrounded by a grayish mist, looking unremarkable, yet it gave off an oppressive feeling as heavy as a mountain.

The flower bloomed with five petals, corresponding to the five colors of cyan, red, yellow, white, and black. As the colors circulated, the resonant sounds of the Great Dao faintly rumbled.

This was a wisp of primal chaos qi from the beginning of the world.

It was a ladder to heaven for mortals to ascend in a single step.