Zhang Yuanqing summoned Little Doubi and the Ghost Bride, and instructed:

"You two guard this place. If anyone breaks in, attempting to seize the key, notify me immediately."

This was a necessary precaution. In case someone tried to steal the jade disc while they were in Takamagahara, Zhang Yuanqing could be alerted in advance by his spiritual servants and use the teleportation jade to return and stop them.

Once the gates of Takamagahara closed, the teleportation jade would become ineffective.

Because the teleportation jade was a Saint-grade item, and the space of Takamagahara was clearly superior to the Saint-grade.

The Ghost Bride held the infant spirit and said softly:

"Husband, be careful. This servant will guard the gate for you."

Only Zhi Sha Palace Master wouldn't understand the communication of spiritual bodies, otherwise, my dear wife, you're in for some trouble… Zhang Yuanqing looked back at the graceful Palace Master.

He still softened his heart and didn't pursue the matter of the Snail Emperor and his father's relics.

On the private jet to Bird Country, Zhang Yuanqing originally intended to put on a cold face and give the cold shoulder, but the Palace Master was too skilled at playing dumb and saying some delicious sweet words, and coaxed the stone-hearted Zhang Yuanqing into a good mood. Zhang Yuanqing didn't usually fall for this, saying coldly:

"I know what Le Lao is capable of. Spare me this. Palace Master, save it for other men."

The Palace Master rested her cheek in her hand, gazing at him adoringly:

"But I only want to use it on you."

And Zhang Yuanqing surrendered.

Sweet words were Le Lao's unique skill; they could always soften a man's heart and steely will with their soft voices.

Xie Lingxi was also very good at this, able to put herself in a pitiful position in a seemingly innocent way, with Le Lao's passive ability playing a crucial role.

Zhang Yuanqing suspected that the Palace Master had secretly played matchmaker for them, otherwise, with the decisive killing of the Celestial Venerable, how could he be so engrossed in beauty?

But he had no evidence.

"Let's go in," he said.

Without waiting for the Palace Master to nod, he took the lead and stepped into the gate of light.

In the next second, he returned to the starless, moonless dark space – Takamagahara.

"This is a dead blessed land; there is no spiritual power, no vitality, and even the oxygen is very thin." Zhi Sha Palace Master's voice came from behind; she was examining the silent darkness ahead with great interest.

"I'm curious why Takamagahara wasn't taken away by The Way of the Extraordinary," Zhang Yuanqing said.

Zhi Sha Palace Master said, "There are two possibilities: One, for some reason, The Way of the Extraordinary deliberately avoided this space. Two, there is an item here of such high grade that The Way of the Extraordinary can't take it away."

"I lean towards the former because the power of The Way of the Extraordinary is beyond our imagination. Little Clever, let's have some fire!"

Zhang Yuanqing then took out the Yin-Yang Robe, draped it over himself, and raised his hands to the sky.

"Whoosh!"

Flames rose, breaking through the darkness, a fireball ten meters in diameter floating above their heads.

A layer of flickering orange was cast over a hundred meters around them.

Zhi Sha Palace Master's back sprouted dense red threads, like saffron stamens, clinging to the fireball, lifting it dozens of meters into the air.

Zhang Yuanqing took the opportunity to step back, looking at the Palace Master's back, seeing that the slender, dense red threads extended from her skirt.

Indeed, this gorgeous and exquisite ancient dress was a magical item, and its level was definitely not low; no wonder she had been wearing it all along. Zhang Yuanqing's long-standing question was answered. "Let's go!"

The Palace Master didn't pay attention to his little movements, heading straight up the stone steps.

They didn't run deliberately, but climbed the mottled, cracked stone steps at a swift, steady pace.

Every few minutes, Zhang Yuanqing would look up at the glaring fireball, a doubt arising in his mind: How could it burn for so long?

The fireball needed spiritual power to sustain its burning, but once it was detached from the Yin-Yang Robe, who was providing it with spiritual power?

Although the Palace Master was in control, Le Lao didn't have fire control skills.

"Le Lao's core skill is Resurrection, allowing the dead, damaged Dao Fruits, and even dissipated skills to come back again," Zhi Sha Palace Master saw his doubt and explained:

"This low-level skill, I can keep resurrecting it to burn forever, until the spiritual power withers. Le Lao is indeed the strongest support, without a doubt."

"Are there any restrictions?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

"Targets beyond her level cannot be resurrected. Resurrection is temporary; each resurrection can only last for ten minutes." The Palace Master frankly stated the limitations of the skill, smiling and saying:

"See how much this Palace Master loves you, giving you my heart and soul?"

"A woman's mouth is a deceiving ghost!" Zhang Yuanqing thought to himself. They didn't waste any more words, passing through the Qin Dynasty building complex located on the mountainside, and after another half hour of climbing, finally reached the summit.

A clear bronze sacred tree, like a pillar supporting the sky, stood on the mountaintop. Compared to it, the fireball ten meters in diameter was like a tiny firefly.

When the firelight passed through hundreds of meters, illuminating the bronze trunk, it only left a faint yellow afterglow. Zhi Sha Palace Master gazed at the sacred tree ahead, her bright eyes flashing with excitement, joy, and other emotions.

Like a sincere believer, seeing God on a pilgrimage.

She didn't conceal these emotions, and Zhang Yuanqing saw them all.

"She knows the significance of the clear bronze sacred tree; she has a deep understanding of the bronze sacred tree. Before I told her about Takamagahara, Zhi Sha Palace Master may not have known about Li Tianyuan and the bronze sacred tree, but she knew the Snail Emperor very well. When I told her that there was a bronze sacred tree left by the Snail Emperor here, she guessed the symbolic meaning of the bronze sacred tree."

"Zhi Sha Palace Master may not know about Takamagahara and the clear bronze sacred tree, but she knows the Snail Emperor very well. When I told her that there was a bronze sacred tree left by the Snail Emperor here, she guessed the symbolic meaning of the bronze sacred tree."

Zhang Yuanqing made a mental interpretation.

"Give me the Dual Dragon Jade," the Palace Master stretched out her fair, delicate little hand. Zhang Yuanqing handed it over almost without hesitation.

She took the Dual Dragon Jade, rising into the wind, her skirt fluttering, like a beautiful red butterfly, floating towards the bronze sacred tree.

Zhi Sha Palace Master stopped in front of the sacred tree, her fingertips exerting slight force, a soft pop, the Dual Dragon Jade shattered, two lifelike five-clawed divine dragons turned into powder, only the central ruby remained.

She caught the lustrous ruby and extended it towards the tree trunk carved with patterns.

The instant the ruby touched the tree trunk, it melted.

Dark red streamers traveled along the tree trunk patterns, like pushing over dominoes, spreading rapidly, lighting up the tree trunk, lighting up the tree branches, and finally lighting up the entire bronze sacred tree.

This process lasted a full twenty minutes; it was too huge. The tallest building in human history was not even a third of its size.

Zhi Sha Palace Master dissipated the illuminating fireball. The red light emanating from the bronze sacred tree illuminated the entire Takamagahara with a layer of soft red light.

"It's alive! The Snail Emperor's divine blood has activated this sky-reaching giant tree!"

"How magnificent!" Zhang Yuanqing said in a low voice.

As soon as he spoke, he heard a deep, heavy rumbling sound coming from inside the bronze sacred tree.

Immediately, the trunk, like a city wall, slowly cracked open, revealing the interior.

The bronze tree was enormous, but the space inside was very small, as small as a mountain cave where an otherworldly expert would cultivate.

The interior was a tender red; the ground and walls were not stone, not bronze, but wriggling flesh walls, with blood vessels faintly visible.

Zhang Yuanqing stood at the cave entrance, cautiously surveying the scene inside. His previous guess was correct: this bronze sacred tree was not a sculpture, but alive. It was truly a tree, but it had nothing to do with trees. The outer shell was bronze, the interior was flesh and blood. The cave wasn't big; directly opposite the entrance was a bronze bed, three meters long and one meter wide. There were no pillows or quilts on the bed, only a bronze pot covered in verdigris.

The bronze pot was tilted, the curved spout gleaming with golden light, a drop of golden liquid hanging like a dewdrop on the spout.

The water droplet formed a shallow pit on the ground, the golden liquid in the pit almost dry. Besides these, scattered around the bronze bed were pieces of bronze plates, piled up haphazardly.

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly remembered the pool outside the bronze tree. He could confirm that the spring of immortality in the pool was caused by the liquid overflowing from the pot.

But for some reason, the liquid in the pot was exhausted, and the pool outside the tree had therefore dried up.

Zhi Sha Palace Master took a sharp breath and quickly stepped into the bronze tree cave, bypassed the puddle, stopped by the bronze bed, and picked up the small, exquisite bronze pot.

She lowered her head, gazing at the bronze pot, her fingertips stroking it, murmuring:

"It's really here; this is where the Snail Emperor cultivated in ancient times."

Zhang Yuanqing asked curiously, "What is it?"

Zhi Sha Palace Master thought for a moment and said:

"It has a name, called the Demon Refining Pot. In myths and legends, it possesses incredible power, capable of creating life, and refining evil spirits and demons."

"But its true face is the most fundamental power of the Le Lao profession, a treasure that demi-god level Le Laos dream of."

The most fundamental power of the Le Lao profession? Zhang Yuanqing suddenly thought of the Lunar Source Fragment in his character card.

Was the bronze pot in front of him an Immortal-grade power?

"A demi-god level treasure?" He looked at it curiously, the bronze pot appearing ordinary and unremarkable.

"No, it's higher level than demi-god," Zhi Sha Palace Master's eyes sparkled, a smile on her lips:

"With it, demi-gods can step into a higher stage. Unfortunately, it's dormant; I can't truly possess it yet, but at least there won't be a shortage of Life Source Fluid. If you need Life Source Fluid in the future, just come to me. When I research its other functions, I'll let you know."

Higher stage? There were ranks above demi-god. Zhang Yuanqing didn't care about the Life Source Fluid and other functions of the Demon Refining Pot, and asked, "What is the higher stage? How do you know all this?"

There were ranks within the demi-god stage; he had vaguely guessed this in his heart, but even the official elders might not know this information about the Demon Refining Pot and the Snail Emperor.

How could the Palace Master, with her Main Load rank, know these secrets? Zhi Sha Palace Master held the bronze pot, shifted her gaze, looked at him with watery eyes, and sighed, "Your father told me. The Tongyao Organization is more terrifying than you imagine. The four of them were the first to unlock the secrets of The Way of the Extraordinary, and that's why none of them had a good ending, Yuan Shi. I'll tell you later, but not now. I don't want you to repeat their mistakes." After saying that, the loss and sadness in her eyes disappeared, her emotions shifting one hundred and eighty degrees, laughing happily like a little girl:

"So much divine fluid! Let's divide it up!" She uncovered the bronze pot lid, gently patted the pot body, and a stream of Life Source Fluid poured out, surging into her mouth.

"This doesn't seem like Life Source Fluid?" Zhang Yuanqing said.

He didn't sense any vitality; the power of these liquids was restrained, without any outward leakage.

"Of course not. Life Source Fluid is their diluted form. Or rather, these liquids are the real Life Source Fluid, the root of the Snail Woman's creation of life. A demi-god level Le Lao can only condense a few ounces of it each year. It can bring the dead back to life, giving corpses a new lease on life, even Ming corpses can be resurrected. I mean physical resurrection. With these raw fluids, I can heal damaged spiritual bodies," she said happily:

"I won't be crazy anymore! Once I heal the spiritual body, if there's any left, I'll give it to you." She seemed very happy, talking to herself.

Zhang Yuanqing felt a strange pity in his heart, thinking, "Forget it, I'll let you have it all." Immediately, he looked at the puddle. Although the golden Life Source Fluid had been taken away, there was still a layer of light golden flesh and blood material in the puddle. This was because the tender red flesh and blood had been soaked for a long time, dyed gold.

Zhi Sha Palace Master took out a silver knife, and in the next moment, rolled up her sleeves. Her slender white hand held the knife, carefully scraping them down.

"I took the Demon Refining Pot, so I'll give you this treasure," she said. "Don't underestimate these things. They require the accumulation of Life Source Fluid over long years to form. In mythology, the Snail Woman used these essences to create humans."

While speaking, she scraped off the soft, rotten golden mud, her small hands skillfully kneading it into an ugly little mud figure.

Raising her eyes, she smiled: "Does it look like you?"

The Snail Woman and I were both speechless. Zhang Yuanqing directly asked, "What's it for?" Zhi Sha Palace Master said naturally:

"The day you're killed, as long as you protect your spiritual body, it'll be another body for you. Well, it's not you yet. Drip some fresh blood on it, and throw it into the bronze pot for seventy-seven forty-nine days of refining."

Saying that, she presumptuously grabbed Zhang Yuanqing's hand, using the knife stained with golden mud to cut open his fingertip, dripping a drop of blood on it.

She then uncovered the bronze pot lid, stuffed the mud figure inside, and said happily, "Done!"

"Equals an extra life? That's definitely stronger than obtaining Life Source Fluid. After all, Life Source Fluid can only heal, not defend against enemies, but the mud figure can let me be reborn." Zhang Yuanqing was satisfied, and suddenly asked: "Then if I die and am resurrected, will the items in my inventory still be there?" Zhang Yuanqing looked at her, she also looked at Zhang Yuanqing, and neither of them spoke. "Okay, you don't know either." Zhang Yuanqing walked towards the bronze bed, and said: "I met the president of the Merchant Guild yesterday. He told me that among the Shadow Twins, one is a Night Wanderer, the other is unclear."

"I plan to check through official channels, what do you think?"

"Okay," she nodded lightly, "Remember to find me if you encounter danger or difficulties." While speaking, Zhang Yuanqing pulled out a piece of bronze plate, looked closely, and saw that it was engraved with a picture, the content being a group of ancient people worshiping a gentle and charitable woman.

The features of this woman were somewhat blurred, but her charm was full, allowing Zhang Yuanqing to recognize her as the Snail Woman at a glance.

"This should be a bronze plate used for recording events in ancient times, similar to our books. Being left in the tree cave by the Snail Woman, it may involve secrets from ancient times. Let's sort out the bronze plates and take a look," Zhang Yuanqing said.

The two of them together placed the messy bronze plates neatly on the ground, and looked at them intently. The bronze plates were engraved with pictures.

Among them, the content recorded on one bronze plate made Zhang Yuanqing's pupils shrink.

"Dark clouds rolling in the sky, countless meteorites penetrating the atmosphere, burning with raging flames, descending to earth...?"

"I plan to check through official channels, what do you think?"

"Okay," she nodded lightly, "Remember to find me if you encounter danger or difficulties."

While speaking, Zhang Yuanqing pulled out a piece of bronze plate, looked closely, and saw that it was engraved with a picture, the content being a group of ancient people worshiping a gentle and charitable woman.

"They picked up stones from the pits, raised them high, and cheered like boiling water."

"They obtained divine power from this, learned to manipulate flames, control rivers, move mountains and rocks, and drive animals..."

"They were worshiped by humans and became gods..."