Chapter 597

Ding Huan is currently using the True Spirit World of the Demon Clan's Heavenly Emperor, Peng Xue Mountain.

So when he stripped away the Five Elements of this space, he used his own True Spirit World as a vessel.

The Five Elements of a Five-Element world, once stripped, cannot be stored in any ordinary container—but storing the stripped Five Element qi within a True Spirit World is perfectly suited.

The Five-Element Stripping Array began to activate; Ding Huan used the Array to operate the Great Cosmic Art while simultaneously casting the Five-Element Stripping Technique.

One after another, the qi of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth was continuously stripped out by the Five-Element Stripping Array and sent into his True Spirit World.

This space was too vast; although Ding Huan had begun stripping the Five Elements, the space was so expansive that no one could detect it yet.

But after several days, this space became noticeably dimmer.

The first to notice were the mining cultivators kept here; some stopped their mining actions.

They looked up at the sky, and some faintly sensed something wrong with the space.

"Shi Qi, have you noticed any change in this space?" asked a gaunt young man, looking up at a middle-aged man beside him.

The middle-aged man named Shi Qi continued calmly refining the ore in his hands: "Focus on your own work. Don't overthink."

The young man suddenly understood.

Originally, the life force here had already scattered greatly; now the Five Elements were fading and weakening—clearly, something major had happened to this space.

For them, it meant not thinking about anything at all; if the space collapsed, it would only benefit them.

If the space didn't collapse, they would remain imprisoned here forever; if it collapsed, they could escape this confinement and seek freedom.

Shi Qi clearly understood this better than anyone.

After realizing this, the young man looked away and pulled out a piece of ore, mindlessly refining it.

But his speed and focus were far worse than before.

If the Five Element qi of this world truly vanished, this world would inevitably collapse.

If the world collapsed, what was there left to fear?

Not just them—everyone slowed their mining pace and began sensing the changes in the surrounding space.

Perhaps in the next moment, they would gain freedom.

In a dark corner of this space, a gray bead floated in midair.

The bead's aura seemed to slowly change, as if striving to blend into the darkness.

"Brother Luo, have you sensed the weakening of the Five Elements outside?" came a strong, resonant voice.

"I've sensed it for a while. I'm thinking I may no longer need to keep my Tianyuan Pearl merging with the surrounding rules." came a gentle reply.

"Emperor Jinhe, Brother Pingwei, I feel we must change our strategy," another voice spoke up.

This gray bead was the Tianyuan Pearl, Brother Pingwei's treasure.

Inside the Tianyuan Pearl, besides Brother Pingwei Luo Yu and Emperor Jinhe Qin Kuang, were also the Ten Thousand Array Star Lord Ji Cang and Wen Zhixi and her daughter.

Ding Huan's guess was correct: these five people, like Ding Huan, had entered this space through the Destiny Divine Array.

Brother Pingwei himself possessed the Tianyuan Pearl, so he immediately knew upon entering that this was someone else's space.

They too saw the more than a thousand mining cultivators kept here; unlike the miners here, they were still temporarily free.

At least their soul had not been branded with a spiritual imprint.

After seeing the many imprisoned cultivators, Brother Pingwei made his decision at once: everyone would move through the dark region.

Since they were not detected immediately, Brother Pingwei concluded the space's owner was in deep meditation.

After confirming they could not leave, Brother Pingwei took out the Tianyuan Pearl and had everyone enter it, while he himself worked to make the Pearl's aura blend as closely as possible with the surrounding rules.

He did not cultivate the Great Cosmic Art like Ding Huan; his understanding and control of cosmic rules were far inferior to Ding Huan's.

It took years just to barely make the Tianyuan Pearl's aura resemble the surrounding cosmic qi.

In Brother Pingwei's calculation, as long as his Tianyuan Pearl matched the aura of the surrounding space,

Even if the space's owner woke up, he would find it difficult to detect a Tianyuan Pearl hidden in the unexplored dark region.

As for Emperor Jinhe and Ji Cang, they used their spiritual senses to search for weak points in this space.

Although all of them knew finding a weak point in this space was nearly impossible,

Still, effort was better than none.

Wen Zhixi was at the Immortal Realm, and Wu Wanting was only at the Profound Immortal Realm—they could do nothing.

After so many years, they had never found a single weak point to break through the space.

They also knew the truth: the chance of finding a weak point and shattering this space to escape was less than one in a hundred million.

Because they hid inside the Tianyuan Pearl, Ding Huan had passed through this space many times with his Cosmic Cauldron and never detected them.

Now that Ding Huan had begun stripping the Five Elements of this space, Brother Pingwei and Emperor Jinhe sensed it immediately.

"Brother Luo, could someone be stripping the Five Elements of this space?" Emperor Jinhe barely contained his excitement.

He knew full well what it meant when the Five Elements of a Five-Element space were stripped.

Even if this Five-Element space did not collapse, once its Five Elements were stripped, the space would become extremely fragile.

If the space became fragile, they could tear it open and escape at any moment.

If this were not a Five-Element space, stripping the Five Elements would have less impact.

But if the Five Elements of a Five-Element world were stripped, collapse was inevitable.

Brother Pingwei also exclaimed excitedly: "No mistake—it's someone stripping the Five Elements of this space. This is a powerful cultivator."

"It seems the space's owner isn't in deep meditation—he's lost perception."

Although Emperor Jinhe's tone remained calm, he inwardly prayed the space's owner would not awaken.

"Who could it be?" Ji Cang also sensed the Five Elements being stripped, but his strength was weaker and he couldn't be certain.

Emperor Jinhe answered immediately: "Ninety percent likely one of the imprisoned ones—those people's strength far exceeds ours.

When we scanned them with our spiritual senses before, they noticed us, but were branded with spiritual imprints and couldn't leave that space."

Brother Pingwei also agreed with Emperor Jinhe's words.

Stripping the Five Phases from a Five Phase world is not as simple as saying it.

At the very least, they could never accomplish it.

Not only can they not do it now, even if their cultivation increased a hundredfold or more, they still couldn't do it.

One must understand the principles of Heaven and Earth's Dao with absolute clarity, and furthermore, comprehend thoroughly the principles of space and all the Dao rhythms embedded within it.

Otherwise, how could you possibly strip away the Five Phases of this world?

"Elder Masters, what should we do now?" Wen Zhixi, hearing their words, forced back her excitement and asked.

Although they hid within the Tianyuan Pearl, that was by no means a long-term solution.

The longer they stayed, the more likely the master of this space would detect them.

"We wait—until the Five Phases of this space world are nearly stripped away, at which point this world may very well collapse."

When a world collapses, let alone you, even I and Emperor Jinhe might not be able to preserve our physical bodies.

So besides waiting, we cannot leave the Tianyuan Pearl—the Tianyuan Pearl is a top-tier spatial treasure; the collapse of this space world will not affect the Tianyuan Pearl."

Brother Pingwei said with firm certainty.

Emperor Jinhe also agreed with Brother Pingwei's words; they had no choice but to wait.

They only hoped this space would collapse soon.

Ding Huan had never entertained the slightest hesitation in stripping the Five Phases of this world.

As each stream of Five Phase energy entered his True Spirit World,

Ding Huan clearly felt his True Spirit World's rank rising rapidly, the vitality of Heaven and Earth growing stronger…

Clearly, the Five Phase energy he had stripped away was saturating his world, making it increasingly stable.

Ding Huan grew more delighted, hoping the master of this space would not regain consciousness before he fully stripped away its Five Phases.

Otherwise, even if the opponent lost physical mobility, as long as he retained spiritual sense, Ding Huan would find it hard to escape unscathed within his space.

He might even fail at the last moment.

Not far from Ding Huan, beneath a giant tree, lay a young man.

But this space had been isolated by its own spatial rules, so Ding Huan could not sense him.

The young man's face was as pale as gold paper, with faint golden blood oozing from his forehead.

His entire aura was gone; only the giant tree continuously seeped vitality into his body, yet the young man remained utterly unresponsive.

As Ding Huan continued stripping the Five Phase energy from this space, the young man seemed to sense something—his previously lifeless eyebrows twitched slightly.

It was as if a voice from deep within his soul called to him, urging him to awaken.

Even his dormant consciousness yearned to rise, yet his lifeless body kept him from awakening.

After a month passed, Ding Huan grew increasingly adept at stripping the Five Phases of this space.

He could clearly sense the Five Phases of this space world gradually vanishing; if he persisted, this space could hold out no more than ten days.

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After ten days, even if this space did not collapse, he could shatter it with a single blow.

Within his True Spirit World, where the Five Phases grew ever stronger, Yi Jie darted about joyfully—he clearly sensed this intensification of Heaven and Earth's Five Phases.

For both cultivators and beast spirits, such an enhancement of the Five Phases was a tremendous opportunity.

Ding Huan faintly sensed that if he further strengthened the fire element, his True Spirit World might truly ascend into a Five Phase World.

True Spirit Worlds are countless across the vast universe, but Five Phase Worlds are exceedingly rare.