Chapter 262: The look in the Daoist's eyes

The green-robed Daoist finally appeared. His face was etched with guilt as he took in Lu Chen's exhausted state. "

Sigh...

Original... I'm still too late."

He had been following Lu Chen the entire time, but last night, chaos had erupted in the other timeline. He had no choice but to leave with the black-robed general. He could never have imagined that, in the brief time he stepped away, Lu Chen would face such a severe ordeal.

The black mist giant, or rather, the entity controlling it, was far beyond what the current Lu Chen could handle.

The green-robed Daoist lifted his head and fixed his gaze on the black mist giant gathering overhead. His usual composure gave way, replaced by a rare, piercing edge of cruelty. "You truly are damned. This is no longer your era. Why do you still insist on showing yourself?"

The vast energy of heaven and earth condensed in his hands. He then picked up the Hunyuan Greatsword and slashed through the swirling black mist. A blade of sword light streaked through the air, severing the giant's arms in an instant.

The black mist giant's arms were cut off, but the mist within the ravine swirled in and allowed the giant to immediately reform its limbs.

It glanced at Lu Chen and let out a brutal roar. It had never considered him a threat. Had it not been for the tablet, it would have devoured Lu Chen long ago.

Little Pup, at the bottom, watched the giant's violent actions and the sudden sword light with growing alarm. He had been puzzled earlier about how the mist giant had split in two; now, with its arms destroyed again, his anxiety deepened. This unfamiliar power was already beyond anything he could comprehend.

The black mist giant had only awakened as part of a controlled trial. Everything had been planned in advance. Because of that, the giant would never be able to unleash too much power.

The trial had been meant merely to test Lu Chen's recent cultivation and guide him into the giant's tomb. Yet this sudden, strange twist had thrown all their plans into disarray.

The giant's mind was clearing, and its strength surged to uncontrollable levels. From the Daoist's perspective, the situation had become extremely dangerous for Lu Chen.

Clack, clack, clack!

The black mist giant tentatively spat several balls of black mist toward Lu Chen, but each dissipated instantly before reaching him.

The green-robed Daoist glanced at the giant, and with that single look, the space around it shattered completely. All the mist within it vanished.

As the black mist giant dissipated into the ravine, the Daoist turned to Lu Chen. "I didn't expect this space to be so constraining. Original... if you hadn't summoned me, I wouldn't have been able to reach you at all."

Yet no matter how he called, Lu Chen did not respond. Worse, his flesh had begun to rapidly disintegrate.

The Daoist knelt beside him, placing his left hand on Lu Chen's forehead and his right on the Heavenly Pool. He swiftly poured refined spirit qi into Lu Chen's body, revitalizing his Heavenly Pool and gradually restoring his lost core essence.

With his task complete, the green-robed Daoist looked down at the others. With a mere thought, he summoned all of them directly to his side.

Little Pup noticed Nantian Wan'er had vanished and turned to Lu Chen in confusion.

Meanwhile, the black mist giant roared once more, emerging in the ravine. As it neared the bottom, its power surged. It focused on Lu Chen once again, formed a massive fist, and slammed it down toward him.

"Infuriating!" A vicious glint flashed in the Daoist's eyes as he revealed himself to the giant. "I don't know why you are still alive, but have you forgotten who I am? Or do you crave death so badly?"

The black mist giant sized him up. Seeing the green robe unfold around the Daoist, a terrified shriek escaped from it, and the giant instantly dissolved into a mass, diving swiftly into the depths of the ravine.

The residual consciousness in the surrounding black mist sensed the giant's reaction and glanced nervously at the Daoist. They could not remember who he was, but the sight of the green robe sent a bone-deep terror through them, forcing them to flee. To these mist remnants, the Daoist was a living nightmare.

Under this primal fear, the black mist in the ravine grew chaotic. It screamed as it surged toward the bottom. Vast amounts of mist vanished, and gradually, the ravine brightened from top to bottom.

Little Pup had already been puzzled by the sudden disappearance of the Red Fox and the others. Now, seeing both the black mist giant and the endless streams of mist fleeing, he frowned even deeper and quickly activated his violent divine eye to inspect Lu Chen.

The gap between him and the green-robed Daoist was immense. Even with his own laws, he could not glimpse the Daoist's depth, nor did he have the authority to probe him.

Finding no abnormalities on Lu Chen, Little Pup could only focus on the fleeing black mist. "What exactly happened? Why has everything gone out of control? Those were just soul remnants... they should have been easy to guide and control..."

Little Pup frowned, refusing to believe what had happened. "Why did they suddenly become uncontrollable? And why have they all fled?"

He formed hand seals again, trying to guide the black mist giant back to see what exactly had changed. But the giant acted as if it were fleeing from a raging flood or a ferocious beast. It ignored Little Pup's commands and frantically escaped toward the bottom of the ravine. Even the souls within the small black mist remnants were beyond his control.

Ten breaths passed. All the black mist had moved through the formation and entered the Giant's Tomb. The green-robed Daoist instantly brightened the ravine with his spirit qi.

Realizing he could no longer control the black mist, Little Pup shook his head and dashed straight toward Lu Chen. He was certain that almost no one on the continent could defy his control, yet the black mist giant's abnormal behavior had proven otherwise. This left him utterly baffled.

Blindman Lu had gone on to search for the Second Ancestral Avatar, while Lu Chen was the crucial link in their plan. If anything happened to him, Little Pup could not answer to Blindman Lu. To ensure Lu Chen's safety, he decided to abandon the original plan and extract him from the area first.

The green-robed Daoist noticed Little Pup charging and, with a simple spell, overlapped space and time, trapping him in a loop.

Observing the black mist gathering below the formation, the Daoist guided the Innate Bagua Diagram downward toward the ravine while simultaneously checking on Lu Chen.

Earlier, he had gone with the black-robed general to the other timeline. When he sensed Lu Chen's call, he dropped everything and rushed over, only to find Lu Chen trapped in a different dimension.

Rushing across worlds in such urgency, he could exert only a minuscule fraction of his power. Moreover, as a cross-dimensional cultivator, he was naturally bound by the laws of this world. With all these obstacles, he could not directly sense Lu Chen, which explained his delayed arrival.

The Daoist sat atop the Innate Bagua Diagram, inspecting Lu Chen's injuries while considering how to prevent such a situation in the future.

Time passed. The Innate Bagua Diagram continued its descent, with Lu Chen still unconscious. Under the blessing of the Green Sovereign bloodline, Lu Chen's injuries gradually healed. His complexion returned to a healthy red, and his breathing steadied, indicating that some of his strength had returned.

Meanwhile, the black-robed general remained occupied with the chaos in the other timeline and could not join them.

Alone, the Daoist grew slightly bored as he waited. He glanced around and released refined spirit qi toward Jun Laoye and the others. Observing the nearby Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree, he thoughtfully plucked three leaves. "The World Tree of the Age of Extinction... I wonder if it still has any effect in this era."

The leaves turned into green robe marks on his hand. He sighed and pressed them onto the foreheads of Jun Laoye, Nantian Yijian, and Nantian Wan'er. Guided by the Daoist's spirit qi, the marks entered their Divine Chambers.

"Seems it still has some effect. In that case, I'll leave you a bit of blessing."

The Daoist entered their minds with his consciousness and observed the green marks drifting within their Divine Chambers. He casually hid them, embedding each into their Divine Psyche Incarnations.

With the marks integrated, the Daoist unleashed three vines from his back, pressing them against the trio's Heavenly Pools. He guided spirit qi to circulate within them. Every pass of the spirit qi drew a portion of the law's essence from the marks, strengthening their Three Dantian Fields and Three Meridian Gates while purging hidden impurities.

Large amounts of black filth gradually drained from their bodies. The Daoist sat beside them, channeling spirit qi to cleanse the filth bit by bit and then purifying their meridians with his own unique spirit qi.

He focused especially on Nantian Wan'er. Lu Chen might have expelled most of the cold toxins corroding her, but traces still lingered. The Daoist meticulously purged the remaining poison and reconstructed nearly her entire body.

After observing their improved strength, he guided them to break through the Golden Dragon Skin stage, stopping just as they approached the Golden Dragon Bone stage. "That shall be enough for now. I can't let you become too strong. You just need to be roughly at the same level as original."

Having done all that, the Daoist continued waiting.

When they passed Little Pup, the green-robed Daoist grabbed him, turning him back into a small ferret and placing him on his shoulder. He then settled quietly beneath the Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree as he continued the descent into the depths of the ravine.