Chapter 631: The Lingering Power of the Fey Emperor

Pang Jian examined his dantian.

The gray-black fragmented land taking form appeared to share a connection with the continent beneath his feet.

Though nowhere near the size of the fragmented land formed from crystalline spiritual qi, its aura and appearance closely resembled that of the Fifth Continent itself.

It was as if a scaled-down version of the Fifth Continent was manifesting within his dantian!

The territories of the Ghost Race, the Demon Scale Race, the Celestial Race, the one-eyed giants, and the Wood Race, with their distinct regions and unique compositions of murky energy, were reflected on this growing fragmented land.

This realization thrilled Pang Jian.

He knew his Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea was incredibly unique, seemingly mirroring the structure of the Abyss itself. The closer his Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea resembled the Abyss, the greater his power.

This seemed to be a crucial step for his physical body to undergo another breakthrough.

I have to use my Primordial Chaos Spiritual Sea to replicate the Abyss, making it as close to its true form as possible!

Pang Jian realized.

From then on, he devoted himself to exploring the Fifth Continent.

He soon discovered that the Fifth Continent was a melting pot of multiple foreign races.

While murky energy filled the entire continent, its composition varied wildly depending on the region.

In the Ghost Race's territory, located in frigid mountain ranges, he found an abundance of mineral deposits resembling Profound Yin Stones, which infused the surrounding murky energy with dense profound yin energy.

Meanwhile, the Demon Scale Race of the Fifth Continent resided around dormant volcanoes. Although these areas were long devoid of life, faint traces of demonic energy still seeped from the craters, becoming the dominant force in the murky energy of that area.

The territories of the Wood Race and one-eyed giants followed a similar pattern.

The murky energy of the Fifth World seemed compatible with all forms of energy except for spiritual qi. Moreover, the locations where the foreign races resided often aligned perfectly with the nature of their bloodlines.

It reminded Pang Jian of the starry skies.

***

Through his covert investigations, Pang Jian learned that the strongest being on this continent was none other than Ah Man, the Ancestor of Ten Thousand Mountains.

Although the Demon Scale Race, the Ghost Race, the Celestial Race, and the Wood Race also resided on the Fifth Continent, Ah Man was the only Rank Ten powerhouse. Furthermore, he had held that position for many years.

Other races had Rank Ten powerhouses born on the Fifth Continent in the past as well.

However, these powerhouses almost always led their races to an unclaimed continent to become the new rulers there.

The number of Rank Ten powerhouses in the Fifth World was limited to seven, as if to match the number of continents.

As long as the Rank Ten powerhouses were not excessively greedy and did not vie for absolute dominance over all seven continents, there would always be enough to divide among them.

In fact, the total number of Rank Ten powerhouses in the Fifth World often fell short of seven.

Having seven Rank Ten powerhouses, each ruling over their own continent, signified that the population and overall strength of the foreign races had reached their peak.

Murky energy almost always surged upward when this occurred.

The foreign races, having amassed their strength, would inevitably launch a war against the human race, hoping to ascend to the upper worlds.

The number of Rank Ten seats also often increased with this spread of murky energy, allowing the foreign races to boost their forces as they ascended.

If they lost, most—if not all—Rank Ten powerhouses would perish.

The surviving warriors would then retreat to the Fifth World to recuperate once more.

This cycle repeated every thousand to several thousand years or so. Each time the Fifth World would give rise to seven Rank Ten powerhouses, the murky energy would surge, and they would launch another assault on the human race above.

They fought, failed, fell into decline, rebuilt their strength, and rose back up, over and over again.

***

Pang Jian wandered across the Fifth Continent like a ghostly specter, aura and presence concealed.

The Rank Ten powerhouses had long ascended to the upper worlds, and even Rank Nine or Rank Eight warriors were a rare sight. Thus, no one paid any attention to a mere "Radiant Race" warrior like him.

The fragmented land above the darkness in his dantian grew steadily as he continued to absorb murky energy from different regions.

He quickly noticed a commonality between those left behind on the Fifth Continent. Regardless of race, nearly all were either elderly, weak, sick, or disabled.

Any warrior with a Rank Four bloodline and above had already been sent to the upper worlds.

The Celestial Race, the Demon Scale Race, the Ghost Race, and the other foreign races left behind in the Fifth World eagerly awaited news of their warriors' glorious victory.

They all fervently hoped their warriors would return in triumph to lead them to the upper worlds, where they could see the sun, moon, and stars once more.

This was the dream of their ancestors, the final wish of their fallen warriors, and the deepest longing of the foreign races as a whole.

Their greatest desires were to escape the Fifth World, start a new life in the upper worlds, and eradicate the wicked human race.

The foreign races had struggled for thirty thousand years to achieve this.

The cunning human race had allied with the savage Fey Gods to drive them into exile, casting the foreign races down from their once-lofty world.

Trapped in the Fifth World, the foreign races could not help but dream of reclaiming all they had lost.

The Celestial Race elders, the Demon Scale Race children, and the dying sickly of the Ghost Race would often turn their gazes toward the endlessly dark sky.

Although their eyes could not see beyond the darkness above, they still glanced upward with the fervent hope of success.

They yearned to set foot in the upper worlds, where their ancestors once lived, and to glimpse the starry skies beyond the Abyss at least once before death claimed them.

***

Pang Jian stood amidst the ruins of a desolate city.

Towering black stone pillars were scattered in pieces across the overgrown wreckage of the ground.

Stone columns, archways, and broken bridges were etched with ancient but identifiable Fey Race script.

Through these inscriptions, Pang Jian learned that the Fey Emperor, Jin Yu, had built this city, known as Golden Plume City.

He did not know who Fey Emperor Jin Yu truly was[1], but he recalled the black turtle's words about the great lineage of the Fey Race originating from the Fifth World in the early days.

Powerful Fey Gods had once stood their ground here, refusing to leave.

It was not until a Fey God ascended using spiritual qi among those exiled to the First World and successfully left the Abyss that the Fey Race started to change.

For Jin Yu to be honored as a Fey Emperor suggested that he was a fallen Fey God from a time before the Fey Race had flooded into the First World.

Unfortunately, those times were over, and now, Golden Plume City was nothing more than a shadow of its former glory. It had been so long that much of the Fey Race script carved into its ruins had faded to become barely legible.

Pang Jian found no trace of foreign races in the area even after using his divine sense to check. It seemed the warriors of the Fifth World had no interest in this ruined city.

This place had likely already been ransacked countless times and was thoroughly stripped of anything valuable.

The murky energy lingering here was also noticeably thinner than in the regions where the foreign races lived and had a rather ordinary composition.

It was not hard to understand why the city remained abandoned. If the murky energy here was beneficial to the foreign races of the Fifth World, they would have long claimed the ruins and rebuilt a new city atop them.

I don't need more murky energy. What I need is increasingly diverse murky energy from different regions with unique compositions,

Pang Jian thought, closing his eyes as he instinctively guided the murky energy in Golden Plume City into his dantian.

His eyes fluttered open in surprise.

The murky energy within Golden Plume City and its surrounding areas contained a nearly imperceptible energy that resisted absorption into his dantian.

This was the first time he had encountered such abnormal resistance throughout his explorations of the Fifth Continent.

No matter how hard Pang Jian tried, this exceptionally faint mysterious energy simply refused to merge with the other murky energy already in his dantian.

Like krill defying the engulfing maw of a colossal whale, the murky energy remained firmly anchored in place, defiantly motionless against Pang Jian's will[2].

Pang Jian's interest was immediately piqued.

Settling down in the ruins of Golden Plume City, he focused intently on this stubborn murky energy, trying to sense its unique properties and aura.

There's a sharp aura of metal energy within it,

he noted.

And also, a fierce, unyielding will...

It's a fusion of energy and willpower!

An idea abruptly struck Pang Jian.

He extracted the golden mountain representing the Dao of Metal from the fragmented land of diverse Heavenly Daos within his dantian before sending it down through his sea of demonic energy.

Its descent was silent, causing no ripples or commotion as it settled onto the gray-black fragmented land of murky energy hovering above the darkness.

A portion of Pang Jian's divine sense then surged into the golden mountain.

Delicate arcs of golden lightning flickered across the mountain's surface, each bolt corresponding to a unique insight into the Dao of Metal.

Metal-attribute sword techniques from Li Zhaotian and Pang Jian's accumulated insights all manifested within the golden lightning woven across the mountain.

However, these arcs of lightning remained faint, a reflection of his limited understanding of the Dao of Metal.

Even so, something had undeniably changed after the golden mountain settled on the gray-black fragmented land. When Pang Jian tried to absorb murky energy once more, he could finally stir the previously unyielding murky energy.

The barely perceptible energy found in the murky energy of Golden Plume City slowly gathered, but still did not merge into his dantian.

Time passed, and eventually, all the scattered murky energy he could perceive within the ruins of Golden Plume City was condensed together.

What formed was a golden feather.

It was not a physical object but a manifestation of incredibly pure metal energy.

This golden feather, forged from metal energy and mixed with an indomitable will, clearly belonged to the Fey Emperor, Jin Yu.

Tens of thousands of years had passed, and the Fey Emperor Jin Yu had long since fallen.

Despite this, his lingering power in Golden Plume City had crystallized into this golden feather.

1. The name Jin Yu (金羽) uses the same characters as Golden Plume in Golden Plume City (金羽城) in Chinese. ☜

2. Krill defying the engulfing maw of a colossal whale is not a standard Chinese idiom, but a figurative analogy. The resistance of this seemingly insignificant murky energy to Pang Jian's absorption is likened to krill somehow withstanding the swallowing power of a giant whale. The phrase emphasizes the unexpected resilience of something weak against an overwhelmingly powerful force. ☜