Chapter 480

When Ji Changsi walked down holding Ding Huan's First Law Official token, his head still felt dizzy.

Only when a group of sect leaders from immortal sects came over to greet him did he calm down.

"Hahaha…" Ji Changsi looked at these sect leaders, who appeared somewhat humble before him, and couldn't help laughing heartily.

He had thought everyone would be rivals after this, but now he realized they were all allies.

"Lord, excellent insight!" Ming Mu's eyes sparkled as he rushed forward immediately.

He felt ashamed of his own short-sightedness—look at how grand his lord's bearing was; clearly, his lord knew someone like Ding Huan could never be an unknown nobody.

In the end, his lord was right, and he was wrong.

The Southern Daojun smiled and said: "After this matter is settled, I'll delay my return to the Immortal Court and pay a visit to your Dafanxian Sect."

His words stunned everyone into silence.

Everyone had known the Southern Daojun meant to aid Dafanxian Sect beyond mere words—but now he was voluntarily going to visit Dafanxian Sect? This was simply…

It clearly meant he intended to stand here and protect Dafanxian Sect; no immortal sect, no matter how fond of taking risks, would dare harbor even a hint of ill intent toward Dafanxian Sect.

Ji Changsi snapped to attention, so excited he could barely speak: "Your humble servant… Dafanxian Sect awaits your arrival, Daojun."

Far away, the monk Qianlou's eyes flickered—he dared not even sense the mark he had left on Ding Huan.

If the Daojun found out, he was dead.

Not even mentioning the Daojun—even if Ding Huan found out, and he hadn't seized Ding Huan immediately, he was still dead.

Look at Ding Huan's connections in the Immortal Court—what right did he have to fight him?

Chi Feitao's scalp prickled; originally, Ding Huan had been his chosen cannon fodder. Now he saw this cannon fodder was being watched by a circle of sect leaders, so he planned to abandon him.

Now he realized—this wasn't cannon fodder. This was a bomb.

The Jiukunxian Sect's leader Mingyu immediately told Xie Qiwei beside him: "Quick, summon Mu Mu Qingqing back immediately—no more surveillance on Ding Huan."

"Yes…" Xie Qiwei replied, ready to call Mu Mu Qingqing back, when she saw Mu Mu Qingqing walking back with a dejected expression.

"Qingqing, did you have a conflict with Ding… Old Six?" Xie Qiwei assumed Mu Mu Qingqing had returned because she heard the Daojun's praise of Dafanxian Sect and his acknowledgment of friendship with Ding Huan.

Mu Mu Qingqing shook her head: "No—he vanished without a trace. I never even kept sight of him; he'd already left on his own."

She had waited outside the Shuanghai Trading Tower for over an hour and saw no sign of Ding Huan emerging—something felt off. She immediately rushed into the Immortal Tower.

Once inside, she discovered Ding Huan had already left; he'd merely left behind a spiritual mark.

Before, if she'd heard Ding Huan had left, Mingyu would have been furious, even personally chasing after him.

Now he frowned—since Ding Huan could leave behind a spiritual imprint and vanish, it meant he'd known they were surveilling him all along. The grudge was now sealed. What to do?

Xie Qiwei quickly said:

"Lord, we should strive to cultivate ties with Dafanxian Sect. Their sect leader Ji Changsi has an excellent relationship with Law Official Ding. If Lord Ji says a few words, what can't be reconciled?"

Besides, Ding Luguan has always held the upper hand and never suffered any loss.

The implication: they had always been the ones suffering losses; now that they yielded, Ding Huan likely wouldn't hold a grudge.

Mingyu nodded—he could only accept this.

Ding Huan had left now, but what if he returned one day and remembered today's events? That would be disastrous.

"What I don't understand is," asked an elder from an immortal sect, "if Ding Huan is so closely tied to the Daojun, why did he sneak away? He could have stood here openly—no one would dare touch him."

No one answered him. Not only did he not understand—neither did Mingyu or Xie Qiwei.

Only Ding Huan and the Southern Daojun understood.

…

Ding Huan had already left Ban Ting Xiancheng.

He had used the Southern Daojun's influence to intimidate those sect leaders, but he dared not meet the Daojun face-to-face.

Who could be sure the Southern Daojun wouldn't take him away?

Still, he didn't flee far—instead, he found a secluded mountain range not far outside Ban Ting Xiancheng.

Deep within this mountain range, Ding Huan carved out a cave dwelling and set up a cluster of concealment immortal arrays.

He still needed to wait for Ji Changsi to give him something—after all this hard work, wasn't it all for the Soul-Eating World Ring?

Ding Huan didn't wait long—before him, the teleportation array's disc glowed with waves of Dao resonance, and then a ring appeared within it.

Ding Huan picked up the ring and swept his spiritual sense into it.

Seeing what lay inside, Ding Huan silently thought: Ji Changsi was a true friend—he'd delivered more than enough.

Inside the storage ring was a sky-blue crystal ring—this was surely the Soul-Eating World Ring.

Besides the Soul-Eating World Ring, there was one top-grade immortal spiritual vein, five upper-grade immortal spiritual veins, three Luowang Immortal Pills, and a pile of high-grade immortal materials.

Ding Huan stored all the other items in his Iron Pot space, his spiritual sense settling on the Soul-Eating World Ring in his hand.

Vast chains of sealing runes appeared in Ding Huan's spiritual sense—even his powerful spiritual sense felt dizzy and disoriented while observing the Soul-Eating World Ring.

A fine artifact.

Without hesitation, Ding Huan immediately activated the Great Cosmos Art to subjugate the Soul-Eating World Ring.

Two days later, Ding Huan subjugated the first layer of seals on the Soul-Eating World Ring.

At this moment, Ding Huan finally understood why it was called the Soul-Eating World Ring.

This world ring allowed its user to sense weak points in a realm's boundaries; if the realm had cracks, the ring could precisely locate them.

But the Soul-Eating World Ring was a consumable—it didn't consume the ring itself, but the soul source within it.

Currently, this Soul-Eating World Ring sensed no weak points in any realm.

To activate it, one had to first subjugate the ring, and second, feed it vast quantities of spiritual souls to devour.

Ding Huan sighed deeply—this was a demon cultivator's artifact.

Was it asking him to kill?

Even if the Soul-Eating World Ring was superb, he couldn't slaughter countless innocent cultivators to fill it.

Also, this Soul-Devouring Realm Ring is undoubtedly a top-tier treasure—why would the Immortal Court reward it to the Great Immortal Realm?

Ding Huan had once stayed in the Immortal Court; he naturally knew the Immortal Court would never be that kind.

To the Immortal Court, the Great Immortal Realm was truly expendable, useful at most as cannon fodder against various races.

As for the claim that the Immortal Court gave away the Soul-Devouring Realm Ring because its cultivators hesitated to let it devour souls, Ding Huan would only laugh.

Even if it required devouring entire planets, no one would ever give it up.

The fact that this Soul-Devouring Realm Ring ended up in his hands must have some reason he didn't know.

Regardless, first he would fully refine this Soul-Devouring Realm Ring.

If there truly was no problem, he would go to the Immortal-Beast Battlefield—or to the Chaotic Realm.

He truly did not want to go to the Immortal-Beast Battlefield; once there, his presence would easily be exposed, and he might be targeted by powerful beings.

…

While Ding Huan was frantically refining the Soul-Devouring Realm Ring, Chi Feitao left Ban Ting Xiancheng.

He wanted to know exactly where Ding Huan had arranged to meet him.

He pulled out Ding Huan's location orb, then slightly raised his eyebrows—he activated the seal and suddenly sensed a vast, boundless Dao energy.

He even thought it might be his imagination.

In that instant, Dao had become far clearer; his understanding of Dao had risen a tier.

If this feeling persisted, he was certain he could enter the Immortal Emperor realm…

Chi Feitao suddenly grew excited, staring at the location orb—could it be that prolonged contact with Ding Huan had imbued the orb with the aura of Ding Huan's treasure?

If so, Ding Huan possessed an extraordinary treasure.

The more Chi Feitao thought, the more convinced he became.

He had already grown wary of Ding Huan and planned to replace him with another cannon fodder.

But if Ding Huan carried a treasure that could grant him Immortal Emperor status, what was there to fear?

Even if he had to risk his life, he would eliminate Ding Huan and seize the treasure for himself.

Chi Feitao forced himself to calm down, his spiritual sense returning to the grid map Ding Huan had given him.

Is this the ruins of the Thirty-Three Gates?

Before he could figure out why Ding Huan had arranged to meet him at the Thirty-Three Gates, the location orb in his hand shattered spontaneously.

Chi Feitao nodded—Ding Huan was extremely cautious; as soon as he obtained the meeting location, he immediately destroyed the location orb.

He liked this kind of conduct.

At this moment, Chi Feitao could no longer contain his excitement—he longed to rush straight to the Thirty-Three Gates.

Once he obtained Ding Huan's treasure, he would immediately pass on the sect lordship to someone else and seek a place to attain Immortal Emperor status.

He absolutely could not remain within the sect—staying inside after killing Ding Huan would be dangerous.

…

Monk Qianlou sighed inwardly—he, Qianlou, had used his sensitivity to heavenly treasures and his powerful intuition to locate a treasure capable of granting him Immortal Emperor status.

Unfortunately, the trail had gone cold.

He had never considered chasing Ding Huan.

First, although Ding Huan was stronger in array arts, the chance he had taken the treasure was vanishingly small—nearly impossible.

He had come here seeking array experts only because whoever took the treasure must be a master of array arts.

Now that he knew Ding Huan's background, why chase a one-in-ten-thousand chance?

Offending a First-Class Law Officer like Ding Huan was no good.

Just as he prepared to return to the Thirty-Three Gates for another search, he sensed that Dao treasure's aura once again.

Monk Qianlou nearly cried out in excitement—he rushed out immediately.

Soon, Monk Qianlou stopped—he had found the place, but no one remained.

The aura had emanated from the very spot where he stood; the person had just left.

Monk Qianlou closed his eyes—in such a short time, no one could escape beneath his notice.

Last time he failed to catch the person because days had passed.

He quickly confirmed—the one carrying the Dao treasure had returned to Ban Ting Xiancheng.