Dilan knew that continuing to deny it before someone like Lan Xiaobu would only bring further humiliation. He simply said, “Yes, that woman is too vile. I only regret my blindness. Had I known, I’d have let Mo Wuji kill her outright, and my body wouldn’t have been destroyed again. If Friend Lan feels I deceived you and wishes to kill me, so be it. I only regret not killing that wretched woman first.”
The desolate sight of a once-supreme Dao Ancestor fallen so low stirred complex emotions in Lan Xiaobu. The Great Dao spares no one; without progress, one regresses. What did it matter if Dilan had once been a Dao Ancestor?
In the Great Cosmos, Dilan had arguably been the foremost figure. Aside from the elusive Dao Ancestor of the Great Desolate Cosmos, others like Jian Jie had practically been his lackeys.
Seeing Lan Xiaobu’s silence, Dilan grew anxious. Despite his words, he had no desire to die. Before Lan Xiaobu could decide, he quickly added, “Friend Lan, though I can’t locate the Cosmic Tree Spirit, I can tell you where the Cosmic Tree is likely to appear.”
Lan Xiaobu’s eyes lit up. “Speak. Where will the Cosmic Tree appear? If your information is accurate, I’ll spare you this time.”
In truth, Lan Xiaobu had no intention of killing Dilan. If Dilan provided the Cosmic Tree’s whereabouts, he certainly wouldn’t. Dilan was selfish but a formidable force. If he could regain his strength, he’d be a valuable asset against the Tianmeng Clan.
“Thank you,” Dilan said, and a jade slip appeared before Lan Xiaobu.
Lan Xiaobu grabbed the slip and scanned it with his divine sense. The information was clear: the Cosmic Tree’s roots spanned the Ten Directions World, blending seamlessly with the rules of heaven and earth, making them nearly impossible to detect. But the Chaos Zones were different.
The Cosmic Tree in the Great Cosmos was still growing, far from its peak, and required vast amounts of chaotic energy to develop. When absorbing this energy, traces could be detected with careful divine sense monitoring.
According to the jade slip’s deductions, the Chaos Zones where the Cosmic Tree was most likely to be found were those nearly inaccessible to cultivators. Surviving in such zones was challenging enough, let alone searching for the Cosmic Tree. A single misstep could see one annihilated by the chaotic space.
Lan Xiaobu withdrew his divine sense from the slip, frowning. He wasn’t dissatisfied with Dilan’s information—Dilan hadn’t given a precise location, but this was still valuable, given the abundance of Chaos Zones in the Great Cosmos.
But Lan Xiaobu’s thoughts weren’t on the Chaos Zones; something else was on his mind.
Dilan watched nervously. Though he’d claimed he could find the Cosmic Tree, its appearance in chaotic regions left him unsure if Lan Xiaobu would be satisfied. Even he, an Eighth Step Great Dao cultivator, couldn’t linger in those inaccessible Chaos Zones, let alone locate the Cosmic Tree.
In other words, even if one reached a Chaos Zone and found the Cosmic Tree, what then? Subduing it there was a pipe dream.
After a long pause, Lan Xiaobu suddenly asked, “Friend Dilan, did your concealment technique come from the Cosmic Tree?”
Dilan was taken aback but nodded. “Yes. While searching for the Cosmic Tree Spirit, I chanced upon its concealment Dao aura. After studying it, I developed my own technique.”
As he spoke, Dilan inscribed another jade slip and handed it to Lan Xiaobu. “This is the concealment divine ability I derived from the Cosmic Tree’s rules. I hope it aids you.”
Lan Xiaobu scanned the slip with his divine sense and exclaimed joyfully, “Excellent, thank you. This will be useful.”
He then tossed a jade bottle to Dilan. “Take this. I hope you won’t live as you did before—first, it’s exhausting; second, it makes you easy prey.”
With that, Lan Xiaobu stepped out and vanished instantly.
Relieved that Lan Xiaobu hadn’t killed him, Dilan scanned the bottle with his divine sense. Seeing it contained Chaos Rule Essence, he nearly trembled with excitement.
With this essence and his top-grade Dao Fruit, he had a seventy percent chance of restoring his body. Once restored, his strength could fully recover.
But then he sighed. In the past, he’d schemed relentlessly for Chaos Rule Essence, only to be dismantled by Lan Xiaobu and Mo Wuji. Now, when he’d given up on it, the essence had fallen into his hands.
Life was unpredictable.
This was Lan Xiaobu’s way. If it were Dilan, he wouldn’t have done the same. He knew why Lan Xiaobu gave him the essence: Lan Xiaobu didn’t want to owe him, wasn’t afraid of his full recovery, and was reciprocating the concealment divine ability.
Perhaps this was why his Dao fell short of Lan Xiaobu’s. Dilan stowed the essence, stood dazed for a while, then transformed into a streak of light and vanished.
Whether Lan Xiaobu intended for him to regain strength to fight the Tianmeng Clan or to repay the divine ability, once restored, Dilan vowed to reclaim his Central Heavenly Court’s territory from the Tianmeng Clan.
They’d driven the Tianmeng Clan out before; they could do it again.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t head to a Chaos Zone. Instead, he found a secluded spot, entered his Longevity Realm, and began studying Dilan’s concealment divine ability within it.
He knew he’d struck gold. Not just a small bottle of Chaos Rule Essence—even a barrel of it would’ve been worth trading for this ability.
For Dilan, reduced to a mere soul, to hide so well that Lan Xiaobu couldn’t detect him, this concealment technique was beyond extraordinary.
His Heavenly Gang Transformation could mimic the rules of heaven and earth, making him hard to detect. But it had flaws: whether transforming into natural laws or other objects, it couldn’t fully integrate with surrounding rules.
Normally, this went unnoticed, but someone highly attuned to cosmic rules could expose his disguise. If he combined his transformation with this concealment technique, Lan Xiaobu suspected even a Ninth Step Great Dao cultivator couldn’t find him. Qian Yao, with only a half-learned version of Dilan’s ability, had nearly fooled him.
But what thrilled Lan Xiaobu most was the potential to locate the Cosmic Tree. By mastering this concealment technique within his Longevity Realm and refining it further, he was fifty percent confident he could find the tree.
The Cosmic Tree hid across the vast Great Cosmos, potentially anywhere. Perhaps when he’d sought its spirit, he’d stood beside a branch without realising it. Once he mastered its concealment rules, would he still need to search Chaos Zones?
To avoid detection by the Cosmic Tree while studying its rules, Lan Xiaobu chose to retreat in his Longevity Realm.
As Lan Xiaobu secluded himself to study the Cosmic Tree’s concealment rules, the Tianmeng Clan and Weiju World’s invasion of Seven Cosmos Heaven World stalled, as he’d predicted.
After all, Lan Xiaobu had slain nearly ten million of their cultivators. The Tianmeng Clan, reliant on the Dao of Oblivion, suffered heavily from losing millions. To reclaim the Great Cosmos, they couldn’t rely on numbers alone. Without a way to counter Lan Xiaobu, they were unlikely to rashly attack Seven Cosmos Heaven again.
With the Tianmeng Clan holding back, Seven Cosmos Heaven and Kong Xinjian didn’t foolishly provoke them. Following Lan Xiaobu’s advice, they began constructing defensive arrays, aiming to hold off the Tianmeng Clan until Lan Xiaobu returned.
Meanwhile, in Jicheng World’s Beixing Heavenly City, within the Dao Ancestor Hall.
Ling Zhuzhen listened to Pei Qionghu’s report with a grim expression. After a dozen breaths, he exhaled and asked, “You’re certain Lan Xiaobu returned and killed nearly ten million Tianmeng and Weiju cultivators?”
Pei Qionghu nodded firmly. “Yes, I’m certain. I have an imaging crystal ball here.”
He activated a crystal ball, revealing Lan Xiaobu’s Great Severing Divine Ability and Great Annihilation Divine Ability crushing ninety percent of the Tianmeng army, with a final Great Destruction Technique for sheer intimidation.
After watching, Ling Zhuzhen sighed deeply. “Man proposes, heaven disposes…”
