Chapter 598: The Collapse of the Five Elements World

Ding Huan could also clearly feel the changes in his True Spirit World; at this moment, the True Spirit World was nearly twice as large as when he had first obtained it.

Besides that, at the edges of the True Spirit World, rings upon rings of dark space had appeared.

Ding Huan knew this was caused by the True Spirit World expanding too quickly, just like the very space he was in now.

The edges of this space were entirely darkness.

The master must have obtained another fortuitous encounter after acquiring this world, and then the world rapidly expanded.

It's just that for some unknown reason the master of this world lost consciousness, causing this situation.

Otherwise, that dark space would have long since been refined away by the master.

There was no such thing as one's own space still containing dark zones.

Unless it was a Chaos World, and what he had clearly obtained from Pengxue Mountain was only a True Spirit World — it couldn't possibly be a Chaos World.

Once his True Spirit World absorbed enough Five Elements, it was very likely to upgrade into a Five Elements World.

Ten days passed quickly. Ding Huan could even feel cracks appearing in the domain barriers of this spatial world; collapse could happen at any moment.

It should be about time. Ding Huan estimated that even if this spatial world didn't collapse, given the state he'd left it in, one thrust from his spear could blast it open.

Just as Ding Huan was preparing to stop and launch a forced attack, he suddenly sensed a strong aura of vitality.

Clearly, the Five Elements aura of this world had been completely squandered by him, yet now a rich vitality was emerging — this didn't make sense?

Ding Huan sped up his stripping even further, while simultaneously sweeping his divine sense outward.

This time he saw clearly — there really was another space within that he had not visited.

The Dao laws of this space were independent, and that rich vitality aura was seeping out from this very space.

While continuing to strip the Five Elements aura, Ding Huan's divine sense unhesitatingly slammed into the Dao restrictions of this space.

A world that had lost its Five Elements was like a house without a foundation — utterly without bones to speak of.

Ding Huan's divine sense struck those restrictions and, with the greatest of ease, tore this space open.

Ding Huan finally discovered why the Five Elements spatial world he was in had not yet collapsed — because there was a giant tree there.

The giant tree looked somewhat withered and yellow, and beneath it lay a youth with furrowed brows.

The youth's face was the color of gold paper, no Dao resonance manifested around him, and his vitality was sustained almost entirely by nourishment from this giant tree.

Ding Huan stood up and in a single step landed beside the giant tree.

Over a hundred array patterns wrapped around the space where the giant tree stood, then the teleportation immortal array activated, and this giant tree was forcibly sent into his own world.

Almost the instant Ding Huan swept away the giant tree, the youth opened his mouth and sprayed out jets of blood, yet showed no sign of waking.

Boom boom boom!

Waves of rumbling sounds came as the entire world began to collapse.

Ding Huan's divine sense caught sight of those captive cultivators frantically protecting themselves as they fled amid the collapsing fragments.

When a Five Elements world collapsed, anyone with a weaker cultivation would surely have their physical body torn apart.

Those thousand-plus captive cultivators, once free, were all swept away by the vortex of the world's collapse.

Just as Ding Huan was about to retract his divine sense, he suddenly sensed the aura of a Pre-Heaven treasure.

It seemed to be a pearl.

This was definitely a good thing.

But Ding Huan didn't dare chase after it. The Five Elements world had completely collapsed, and the place he was in was the youth's space.

Staying here for now was fine, but once he rushed out of this space, he would likely be swept away too.

Ding Huan's divine sense followed that pearl carrying Pre-Heaven aura, and he could only watch helplessly as the pearl was drawn into the cosmic vortex and vanished from sight.

Sigh, what a pity — it meant he had no fate with that pearl.

Because he had lost a Pre-Heaven treasure, Ding Huan felt displeased.

He summoned a long saber and slashed it into the youth's brow in a single strike.

He sensed on this youth the lingering fortune and vitality aura of the Pangu Grand World.

It could be confirmed — it was this fellow who had been stripping and extracting the fortune of one realm of the Pangu Grand World to heal his injuries.

How could Ding Huan possibly let such a scoundrel go?

"Puh!" A spray of blood exploded.

Ding Huan stared at the long saber in his hand in shock.

After his long saber slashed into the youth's brow, it had actually been caught by the other's bone, and this one strike had failed to split open the other's skull.

What kind of bone was this — could a single slash of his not split it open?

"You..." Struck on the bone by Ding Huan's saber, this youth actually sat up abruptly.

Hearing that the other had actually uttered a single word "you," how could Ding Huan dare hesitate? The long saber in his hand once again swept up a curtain of blade shadows.

Puh! Crack!

This slash finally split the other's skull completely open. The youth who had uttered that one word, without even opening his eyes, collapsed once more.

Ding Huan tossed a ball of flame onto this fellow's body, and the Grand Void Flame quickly burned him down until only a skeleton remained.

What a powerful physical body.

Ding Huan was secretly horrified.

This physical body's strength was hundreds or thousands of times greater than his own.

That's not right — why did this fellow not have much on him?

Ding Huan was very clear that in the Five Elements world that had just collapsed, he hadn't found any valuable treasures. The only thing of value was that Pre-Heaven pearl, which he hadn't obtained.

Now this youth also didn't have any rings or True Spirit World or the like on him.

Could it be that such a powerful cultivator really had nothing good?

Fortunately, he had still harvested a giant tree. That giant tree was bursting with vitality and could keep this youth alive at death's door — at a glance it was no ordinary thing.

Looking at the skeleton still floating in the void, Ding Huan felt leaving it behind wasn't a good idea.

Despite his Seventh Layer Immortal Emperor realm, he lacked the power to destroy the skeleton outright.

Ding Huan's spiritual sense fell again upon the massive cosmic vortex—the previous primordial pearl had plunged into this cosmic vortex.

Ding Huan tried to infiltrate the cosmic vortex with his spiritual sense; it was instantly shredded to nothing.

Ding Huan seized the skeleton not yet consumed by Grand Void Flame, landed outside the cosmic vortex, then threw the skeleton inside.

He vaguely sensed this skeleton would bring him trouble, but he dared not keep it nearby—keeping it nearby might be even more dangerous.

No matter what trouble it caused, Ding Huan would never regret killing the youth.

Even if he hadn't killed the other, the moment the fellow revived, he wouldn't spare Ding Huan.

For now, his priority was to return to Half-God Star Continent as soon as possible, then find a way to ascend to a higher rule plane and cultivate further.

His spiritual sense swept farther into the void; besides this cosmic vortex, dozens of cultivators were frantically fleeing.

These cultivators had all been kept captive in the Five Elements World, and now that world had collapsed due to him draining its Five Elements qi.

They had gained freedom, hence their frantic escape.

Ding Huan pulled out the Void Orientation Disc he had taken from Heng Lu'er.

To his surprise, the Void Orientation Disc showed information.

He saw Yue Xingtian.

It seemed his fate with Yue Xingtian was strong—he could end up here even like this.

Probably the Five Elements World he destroyed had entered a cosmic vortex, even multiple cosmic vortices.

Ding Huan transformed his appearance into that of an ordinary Void wanderer, then swiftly piloted a top-grade immortal artifact to catch up with one of the fleeing cultivators.

The fellow looked like nothing but a skeleton, with barely any flesh on his body—he was painfully emaciated.

His face was gaunt, like a skull, his aura utterly withered.

Pitch-black in hue, clearly the result of long-term mining.

"Comrade…" Seeing Ding Huan's top-grade immortal artifact block his path, the emaciated man's eyes lit up—then he felt the overwhelming domain suppression, and quickly retracted his thoughts, calling out.

"I just saw a world collapse—you over a thousand burst out—why are only dozens of you left?" Ding Huan directly stated he had witnessed the Five Elements World's collapse.

"We…"

The emaciated man dared not continue.

Ding Huan opened his hand, and a long spear appeared in his grip.

The spear's killing intent instantly locked onto the emaciated man: "You know I saw everything. If I'm not mistaken, you were all kept as livestock, weren't you?"

"Answer my questions properly. If I'm satisfied, I'll give you a ring containing things you need—including a flying artifact. Otherwise, you die right now."

"Comrade, please ask," the emaciated man hurriedly replied.

He had just realized it.

If the Five Elements World hadn't collapsed, he'd have been dead anyway. Now, perhaps he could find a place to survive.

"Who kept you captive?" Ding Huan's spiritual sense locked onto the man's aura—if he lied, Ding Huan would kill him immediately and find someone else to question.

"His name is Qing. He comes from the Upper Divine Realm."

"What is the Upper Divine Realm?"

The man was stumped by Ding Huan's question; years of mining had dulled his mind, and after a moment he replied:

"The Upper Divine Realm is the Upper Divine Realm—it's not a place ordinary people like us can reach."

"What specific star continent?" Ding Huan prompted.

Just like the Mortal World, the Dao Cultivation World, and the Ascension World—those were all three-tiered star continents.

The Upper Divine Realm must have at least one star continent name.

"We're the lowest of the low—how would we know what star continent it is?"

The emaciated man's words left Ding Huan stunned—you might be the lowest, but you still ascended there, didn't you?

"What was your highest realm when you were at your peak?" Ding Huan felt the man's mind still hadn't cleared.

"Nurturing God realm."

"Answer my first question: I saw over a thousand of you—how come only dozens escaped into the void?"

"Because they fused with divine cores—here, in this low-level plane, the cosmic rules suppressed them, and their bodies shattered and died."

Divine cores? Ding Huan frowned: "What are divine cores?"

The emaciated man didn't want to answer this Bai Chi question, but his life hung in the other's hands.

"Only by obtaining a divine core can you advance further; otherwise, you're forever trapped in the Nurturing God realm."

"How do you obtain a divine core?"

The emaciated man wanted to sneer at this Bai Chi—if he knew how to obtain a divine core, would he still be stuck in the Nurturing God realm?

Ding Huan immediately realized he'd asked a pointless question. He pulled out a ring and tossed it to the man: "Take it."

The emaciated man grabbed the ring eagerly, hurriedly thanked him, and fled.

Ding Huan didn't ask how the man could return to the Upper Divine Realm—he was certain the man didn't know.

(Comrade, good night! Please vote for a monthly ticket. One more thing: regarding the background of "After Mythology," why this tier system, and whether it connects to other novels—I'll write an introduction on my official WeChat account in the next few days.)