Destined One

In an instant, countless ancient exotic beasts came back to life with earth-shattering might. Anyone standing before these beasts would feel incomparably insignificant, as if targeted by a pack of apex predators.

And The Painter stood among the horde of beasts, his burning gaze fixed on Gu Qingfeng, looking like the absolute ruler of ten thousand beasts.

His eyes were terrifyingly bright, like cold lightning. It was as if flashing bolts of electricity had torn through the night sky to shine upon Gu Qingfeng.

It was truly an extraordinary display of presence.

The only discordant detail was his face—swollen high, resembling a pig's head.

"Kill him!"

The Painter roared in anger.

The ancient exotic beasts instantly charged forth.

The smallest in size, the Heavenly Horned Ant, was the fastest. It appeared before Gu Qingfeng with lightning speed, lunging fiercely like a streak of black lightning.

The power brought about by this tiny ant caused the void to twist and shatter. Its strength was incredibly terrifying; a single strike felt like a vast world pressing down.

However, when it crashed into Gu Qingfeng, it was as if it had slammed into an unshakable pillar of heaven.

With a loud thud, it tumbled to the ground, dizzy and disoriented.

Smack!

Gu Qingfeng casually stomped his foot, crushing the Heavenly Horned Ant to death and turning it into a thick puddle of ink.

At this moment, a massive ten-thousand-foot Kunpeng descended from the sky. With its attack, the entire fourth floor underwent an earth-shattering transformation in an instant, seemingly turning into a boundless ocean. As the Kunpeng spread its wings, they looked like clouds hanging from the sky, whipping up monstrous storms and crashing down with endless destructive power.

Whoosh!

Gu Qingfeng gently blew a breath, and endless demonic qi surged out.

In just an instant!

Boom!!

Heaven and earth shook, and the seawater rolled backward. The water retreated exactly as it had come, but with even greater speed and magnitude than before.

The sky-blotting Kunpeng was directly smashed to death by the waves, dissolving into a blob of thick ink.

Not just the Kunpeng, but all the other exotic beasts were killed in the waves of demonic qi.

The Painter was completely dumbfounded.

He never imagined that the ancient exotic beasts he had poured his heart and soul into painting would all be blown away by a single breath from the other party.

While he was still in a daze, Gu Qingfeng had already walked up to him.

Slap, slap, slap...

"Open the door."

Gu Qingfeng said indifferently, just as he had when he first entered, as if nothing had ever happened.

The only difference was that all the paintings on the walls had vanished, and the young The Painter had been turned into a pig's head.

"Right away!"

The young The Painter hastily agreed, respectfully drawing a door on the wall to let Gu Qingfeng pass through.

Gu Qingfeng brushed past him without even a glance, heading straight for the fifth floor, which was also the final floor.

The fifth floor.

Upon entering, Gu Qingfeng saw a Scruffy Old Daoist holding a compass, sitting cross-legged on the ground as if meditating.

The moment the Scruffy Old Daoist saw Gu Qingfeng, he frowned. "You are not the person this poor Daoist is waiting for..."

Smack!

After receiving a heavy slap to the face, the Scruffy Old Daoist froze for a second before hastily changing his tune, "Who else could it be?"

"Is this the last floor?" Gu Qingfeng asked.

The Scruffy Old Daoist hurriedly stood up and said respectfully, "Yes, this is the final floor."

"Where is the item?"

"What item?"

Smack!

"Please follow me, my Lord. The item is deep within the fifth floor."

The Scruffy Old Daoist clutched his face, smiling flatteringly as he led the way.

He showed absolutely no resistance, simply because he didn't dare to.

The man before him had managed to slap him twice across the face without him even reacting. That meant this person could just as easily blow his head off before he could react.

"Please take a look, my Lord. This is the legacy item guarded by this pagoda."

Gu Qingfeng calmly looked at the cluster of flames floating before him. It was a very ordinary-looking flame, much like the fire a mortal would start from burning firewood.

If there was anything extraordinary about it, it was probably the fact that the flame was suspended in midair.

"What kind of flame is this?"

"The Fire of the Epoch!" The Scruffy Old Daoist stared fixedly at the flame, its light reflecting in his pupils, exceptionally bright.

"What is the Fire of the Epoch?" Gu Qingfeng asked.

Given how much he had been slapped, the Scruffy Old Daoist didn't dare to keep him in suspense and said directly, "The Fire of the Epoch can also be called the Fire of Civilization. It is the crystallization of civilizations from past epochs! You can understand it as the crystallization of all civilizations from previous eras—that is, cultivation methods, divine abilities, Great Daos, and everything else.

When an epoch dissipates, as long as this fire remains, it can ignite the flame of a new epoch's civilization!"

Gu Qingfeng became slightly interested. "What is its use?"

"Its uses are immense. You can comprehend divine abilities and break through cultivation realms through the Fire of the Epoch. You can even use it for artifact forging and alchemy, and you wouldn't even need to do the work yourself. It's like a universal panacea."

Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng immediately lost interest.

He felt that this thing wasn't of much use to him. It wasn't as practical as a Half-Step Immortal Lord.

At this point, the Scruffy Old Daoist changed the topic. "Of course, none of the above are its greatest use. Its greatest use is..."

Smack!

"Next time, get straight to the point."

"Right away, my Lord. The greatest use of the Fire of the Epoch is that it can be used to shatter epochal barriers."

"What do you mean?"

"Simply put, it can allow those buried epochs of the past to reappear in the human world."

"What!?" Gu Qingfeng was instantly startled.

"Are you saying it can bring back destroyed epochs?"

"Yes, but not entirely. It cannot bring back the past epochs in their entirety. Instead, it breaks the boundaries of epochs, causing the epochs of eternity to merge. This will create a chaotic world filled with countless experts, and the face of heaven and earth will undergo heaven-shaking, earth-shattering changes.

Some will overlap, some will be submerged, and some will reappear in the world."

Hearing this, Gu Qingfeng suddenly became excited.

Isn't this damn well prepared exactly for this Emperor?

He had just been worrying about not being able to find Half-Step Immortal Lord level experts. When the eternal epochs overlapped and countless experts emerged, wouldn't he be able to use them to become an Immortal Lord himself?

Who knows, there might even be Immortal Lord experts appearing in the world!

"This Fire of the Epoch has such immense power?"

The Scruffy Old Daoist shook his head. "This is not the power of the Fire of the Epoch. It merely acts as a key. Those epochs truly exist upon the River of Time. The function of the Fire of the Epoch is to break the boundaries of time and cause the eternal epochs to overlap, not to create eternal epochs on its own."

Gu Qingfeng understood in his heart. He suddenly looked at the Scruffy Old Daoist beside him and said with interest, "To know these secrets, you probably aren't a simple figure either, are you?"

The Scruffy Old Daoist smiled mysteriously. "Hahaha, this poor Daoist is but a wandering old Daoist..."

Smack!

"Stop pretending to be profound and speak properly."

"Right away, my Lord." The Scruffy Old Daoist held his face, looking like he wanted to cry but had no tears. "I am the guardian of the Fire of the Epoch. Ever since I gained consciousness, I have been guarding the Fire of the Epoch in this bronze pagoda, waiting for the destined person to arrive."

"You said earlier that this Emperor is not the person you were waiting for. Then who is the person you were waiting for?"

"Dao Child Jietian."