Chapter 972: The Heart of Nature

He who has the will ought to make the effort, and results... will inevitably come.

While everyone else thought Tang San was a fool, tricked into wasting his money on a useless purchase, how could they possibly know how exhilarating and blissful he felt at this moment?

What exactly was that seven-colored gemstone? With just a single glance, Tang San immediately understood that no one else in this plane could possibly recognize it. And indeed, how could they? Such a supreme treasure required extraordinary means to even identify, and no one in this plane was at the required level. Not even Emperors.

It had a beautiful name—the Heart of Nature. As for what it was? It was a plane's ultimate natural treasure, something that was condensed when a plane's natural energy reached an overwhelming peak. Each plane could only produce one.

The Heart of Nature, about the size of a fist, was something Tang San had only seen once in all his years as a God King. And what was its function? Attunement to nature? In spite of its name, that was actually not the case. Its use was far more profound than that; the name stemmed from it being the symbol of the entire plane.

The Heart of Nature had another name—the Keystone of the Divine Realm.

For a plane to transform into a divine realm, the first requirement was to give birth to a Heart of Nature. Then, a supreme being could use it to generate divine energy, thus beginning the gradual evolution of the entire plane.

In other words, for a mortal plane to ascend, a Heart of Nature was absolutely indispensable. And it could only be the Heart of Nature that was born within that plane itself.

How could any treasure in this plane possibly be more important?

On Planet Falan, despite the immense strength of all the Emperors present, none of them recognized the Heart of Nature. Not even the planar ruler could recognize it, for the very simple reason that the planar ruler was not intelligent. It had sentience and it was aware that this item was important, but it did not know why.

Creating a divine realm was exceedingly difficult, and the greatest challenge lay in transcendent insight. Without being awakened properly, even if a hundred thousand years passed, even if a hundred

million

years passed, this Heart of Nature would remain here unnoticed, and the plane could never become a divine realm.

For Tang San personally, the Heart of Nature was of no use whatsoever. After all, he was already the master of a divine realm and had no intention of creating another. But having the Heart of Nature of Planet Falan in his possession meant holding the ultimate bargaining chip. It gave him tremendous leverage in negotiations with the planar ruler. In other words... with this in hand, being able to ascend to Emperorhood was all but certain.

How could the Sunborne Nymph Emperor possibly understand what kind of treasure he had given Tang San? Purely in terms of value, all the artifacts of Planet Falan combined would not be as precious as this Heart of Nature. Its worth to the plane itself was even higher than the value of the Spacetime Beacon.

As for the following nineteen auction items, Tang San genuinely didn't care any longer. There might be some good things among them, but he was absolutely certain that none of them could possibly surpass the value of the Heart of Nature.

If that's what you people call the fool's tax, then I am damn happy to be up to date with my tax payments!

Tang San struggled with his emotions, suppressing the urge to smile. It wasn't until the auction for the second item had already begun that he finally managed to pull himself together. He was naturally extremely eager to have the Heart of Nature safe in his hands, but he kept reminding himself to stay calm. He absolutely could not let anyone see how much he valued this treasure.

In fact, he even knew exactly how to begin Planet Falan's evolution into a divine realm: He would need to embed the Heart of Nature into the Ancestral Tree, fusing it with the plane's life source. This would naturally give rise to divine energy. Although the process would take a long time, it would signify the true beginning of the plane's evolution.

But of course, with things as they stood, he had absolutely no intention of doing that. The reason was simple: right now, this entire plane was ruled by demons and nymphs. If they had the foundation of a divine realm, which would allow them to become true gods, then humanity would lose every chance to rise... forever.

Lost in his thoughts about the Heart of Nature, Tang San didn't even know what the second auction item was, and it was quickly concluded at a high price.

"Big Brother, are you alright? It's okay, it's only five thousand amethystine coins. We'll earn it back in the future," Jin Miaosen said, gently comforting Tang San.

The Grand Elder added, "Clan Leader, don't worry about it. We can afford to lose five thousand, and besides, it might turn out to be useful. And even if it doesn't, the Sunborne Nymph Emperor now owes us a favor. That's no small thing."

They could all see Tang San's absentmindedness, especially since the second auction item was actually quite useful to them—a cloak that resonated strongly with life energy. But Tang San hadn't even touched his button, so they assumed he was simply feeling distressed about the money.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. I was just thinking about something. Let's continue bidding."

"Presenting the third auction item," the Sunborne Nymph Emperor announced from the stage.

Soon, the third item was brought up to the auction block.

It was a shield, entirely black in color, with a pattern resembling a tortoise shell across its surface. It radiated an incredibly heavy aura, and faint wisps of water vapor seemed to rise from it.

"This is a divine shield known as the Dark Turtle Shield. It was created from the carapace of the Dark Turtle Demon Emperor who fell five thousand years ago. In its time, it was hailed as the strongest defensive artifact. However, the conditions to fully unlock the Dark Turtle Shield's power are not easy to fulfill. In fact, since its creation, no one has ever been able to unleash its full potential. Still, even just its baseline defensive strength is more than enough to be considered a divine item. We're auctioning it today in the hope that someone can truly awaken its might and restore its radiance to the world," the Sunborne Nymph Emperor explained.

Meanwhile, in VIP Room Eight, Tang San's eyes had gone blank... again.

The Dark Turtle Shield? What the hell are you talking about?! That's the Black Tortoise, the divine beast Black Tortoise!

[1]

With a moment's thought, he understood what had happened. He had to admit—Planet Falan was indeed a place of unparalleled natural bounty. The Dark Turtle, upon reaching the Emperor level, must have evolved into the divine beast Black Tortoise. The Black Tortoise represented water, heaviness, absolute defense, and the northern direction. Had this been a divine realm, it would have become the Northern Guardian Beast, a First-Class God.

But the problem was that while Planet Falan's resources were so rich, it had never evolved into a divine realm. So even though the Black Tortoise had the

potential

to reach that level, it still couldn't escape the limits of mortality and eventually perished. At its death, the essence of the Black Tortoise condensed into this shield, an absolutely extraordinary treasure.

In a divine realm, if a First-Class God sacrificed their entire essence to create an artifact, it would be a divine item of the absolute highest class. In fact, if refined by a God King and enhanced with a few other precious materials, it could even become a transcendent divine item. In other words, this Black Tortoise Shield was effectively the seed of a transcendent divine item.

As for why no one had been able to fully unlock its power, the reason was simple: it was just like the Fire God's Scepter. Without a divine seat, it was fundamentally impossible to activate.

What a treasure, what a treasure indeed!

He had to win it. This was something he could definitely bring back with him to the divine realm. Once he restored his God King cultivation, turning this into a transcendent divine item would not be particularly difficult.

1. The word that we translated as "dark turtle" can in fact be translated as "black tortoise" as well, but since the word for "dark/black" (that also means "profound, mysterious, obscure") is the same in both words, we rendered it as "dark turtle" to make the difference more visible. As for the divine beast, its name actually does

not

contain the word for turtle/tortoise; it's known as Xuanwu ("dark/profound warrior") due to its association with the god Xuanwu—one of the most powerful deities in the Daoist pantheon, who is said to have transformed into a black tortoise with a snake as its tail at one point. ☜