Following the rough direction Kun Wei provided, Lan Xiaobu stopped after just two days. To his surprise, he recognised the place—Zhan’ai Sage City. This was where he’d once broken through to the Unity God Realm.
Zhan’ai Sage City was renowned in the Eternal Life Realm, thanks to its founder, Quasi-Sage Qia He, who’d established a strict legal system. Such order was rare in the cultivation world, let alone the god realm teeming with powerhouses. Its fair and amicable regulations drew countless rogue cultivators. Their arrival, combined with its proximity to the Great Cosmic Sea, spurred rapid growth, making it increasingly prosperous.
Most believed Zhan’ai Sage City fell to a tide of sea venom bugs that wiped out its cultivators. But Lan Xiaobu knew better—it was no natural disaster. The city’s destruction was deliberate, and the root cause was Qia He’s weakness. In this dog-eat-dog world, frailty was the original sin—especially when you dared to impose laws only the strong could enforce.
Even now, Lan Xiaobu’s ring held a strand of fine thread, likely tied to the city’s downfall.
He’d risked breaking through to Unity God here and nearly lost himself in the process. Now, as a third-turn sage who’d ascended via fortune, merit, and laws, no one could touch him—unless someone like Luo, uninjured, showed up. Otherwise, plotting against him was a pipe dream.
Lan Xiaobu first set up layers of trapping-killing arrays around Zhan’ai Sage City before stepping inside.
Reflecting on how he’d dared to seclude himself here and reach Unity God, he felt a chill. Ignorance truly bred fearlessness.
Upon entering, his divine sense zeroed in on his old seclusion spot. To his astonishment, the few unused divine spirit veins he’d left behind were still there. Either no one had come, or those who did never got the chance to take them.
They were his anyway. Lan Xiaobu approached, raising a hand to collect the two veins.
But as his divine sense brushed them—before he could even gather them—a powerful call surged, urging him deeper into the city, almost beyond his control.
He sighed inwardly. Back then, this illusion array had ensnared him, driving him frantically inward. Without the Emperor Rest Tree and Fortune Dao Tree, he’d be another skeleton here.
Now, he followed the illusion’s pull without hesitation, racing deeper. He didn’t need to activate any techniques or his Fortune Dao Tree—his divine sense clearly tracked the shifting surroundings.
An hour later, a void array gate loomed before him. Years ago, he’d avoided entering it, nearly dying to a massive sea venom bug during his escape.
Today, he stepped through without pause. Spatial fluctuations rippled, but his divine sense kept everything in view. This “void gate” was just a teleportation passage within Zhan’ai Sage City, shifting from surface to underground.
Moments later, he emerged into a wide corridor lit by illumination arrays. Whether by design or due to depleted spirit sources over time, the light was dim, casting vague shadows along the walls.
The corridor brimmed with top-tier treasures—artifacts, dao pills, divine elixirs. To most cultivators, divine sense would falter here. But Lan Xiaobu saw through it all—every treasure, fruit, and pill was an illusion.
He didn’t bother faking surprise, striding swiftly through to a white jade hall.
The hall was lined with thousands of crystal coffins, each holding a cultivator—long dead, as his casual scan confirmed.
When his divine sense reached a corner coffin, he spotted Kun Wei, locked inside. Unlike the others, Kun Wei still lived, his aura faintly pulsing.
Sensing Lan Xiaobu’s arrival, Kun Wei struggled to open his eyes, unable to extend his divine sense. He wanted to warn him, but his lids merely twitched despite his efforts.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t rush to free him. His gaze fixed on the hall’s centre, where a staircase descended. Even with his cultivation, something blocked his divine sense from probing it.
With a cold snort, he prepared to tear through the obstructing array with his divine sense. A dull rumble echoed, and countless sea venom bugs poured down from above.
A stench flooded the air—toxic enough to kill, but even without poison, its foulness would drive most cultivators away fast. Alongside it came a briny sea scent.
In an instant, Lan Xiaobu understood. A spatial array here linked to the Great Cosmic Sea. Entering the hall triggered it, unleashing the bugs.
The intent was clear. Only one path lay ahead—flee forward into a transparent crystal coffin.
Even knowing the coffin was a trap, most cultivators would dive in to escape the venomous swarm.
Lan Xiaobu saw it all. The coffin appeared the moment the array activated and the bugs surged.
These bugs ranged from third-rank to eighth-rank divine beasts, countless in number.
As a Unity God cultivator, he’d have used his Primordial Flame to form a shield, holding them off briefly before faltering. His only options then would’ve been the Cosmic Dimension Model or his Eternal Life Realm.
As a quasi-sage, he could’ve wielded the Seven Tones Killing Technique, sweeping them away in droves with its Charm.
Now, a third-turn sage ascended through laws, he didn’t even budge. A boundless wave of killing laws roared out, and in the next moment, every bug in the space disintegrated, vanishing completely.
More poured from the void array, but Lan Xiaobu ignored them, approaching the coffin. The newcomers couldn’t reach him—his laws obliterated them in swarms, leaving the space pristine, as if they’d never existed.
At the coffin, a powerful force seized him, trying to drag him inside.
He didn’t bother with divine abilities. His Charm of laws unfurled, and the force crumbled away.
Then, a massive sea venom bug—its length unknown—thrust its head from the void, its black, reeking maw lunging at him. A ferocious suction aimed to swallow his entire space. Lan Xiaobu recognised it—the same beast that had chased him years ago.
Still, he didn’t draw a treasure. His killing laws surged, and the bug’s maw, mere feet from him, collapsed into segments, disintegrating mid-air.
*Crack!* A grating sound rang out. The void spilling bugs vanished, and the coffin before him began sinking into the floor.
Lan Xiaobu grabbed it, casting a few array patterns to bind it in place.
Kun Wei’s eyes finally opened. Seeing Lan Xiaobu holding the coffin, he tried to shout a warning, only to realise he couldn’t speak. But Lan Xiaobu seemed unaffected.
After securing the empty coffin, Lan Xiaobu approached Kun Wei. With a wave, the crystal coffin imprisoning him shattered. Kun Wei stumbled out, spitting a jet of dark blood.
Relieved, he gasped, “Thank you, Dao Lord, for saving me.”
His heart churned with awe. He knew this place’s horrors too well. Though his cultivation hadn’t fully recovered, he’d regained first-turn sage strength—yet he’d been trapped quickly. Lan Xiaobu, though, strolled through like it was nothing.
Since Sage Island, Lan Xiaobu’s power had soared.
Lan Xiaobu waved it off. “Minor matter. Do you know what’s going on here? Wait…”
Mid-question, he sensed something else. In a step, he reached another corner and waved again.
Another living cultivator—trapped for tens of thousands of years, judging by the coffin’s Charm.
“That’s Quasi-Sage Qia He…” Kun Wei blurted. He’d never met Qia He, but as a Dao Lord aiming to unify the Eternal Life Realm, he’d researched Zhan’ai Sage City—and thus Qia He.
