Chapter 599: 598. Chapter 593: The Old Friend Is Gone

598. Chapter 593: The Old Friend Is Gone

"Yijie, now help me steer the Cosmic Cauldron toward Half-God Continent. If you do well, I'll reward you with a Soul-Linking Fruit."

After setting up the directional array before the Cosmic Cauldron, Ding Huan gave Yijie further instructions.

During this period of observation, Ding Huan found that although Yijie was merely a pig, it carried out tasks with strict discipline and seemed quite obedient.

He hadn't given Yijie the Soul-Linking Blue-Faced Fruit because he wanted to return to Half-God Continent and see if any Soul-Linking Purple-Faced Fruit remained.

That was only a slim hope, after all, the Half-God Continent had once been occupied by Insect Demons.

To billions of Insect Demons, Soul-Linking Fruits were far more valuable than Nine-Colored Void Lotus.

If there had truly been such a fairy fruit on Half-God Continent, it would've been long since consumed.

Indeed, upon hearing Ding Huan's words, Yijie became extremely excited.

It had gained partial control of the Cosmic Cauldron and now had a chance to obtain a Soul-Linking Fruit—this was like a cake falling from the sky.

It had long wanted to control this cauldron, and now the opportunity came so easily.

Yijie happily took control of the Cosmic Cauldron, while Ding Huan decided to first study the Heart-Dodging Divine Art.

Cultivating inside the Cosmic Cauldron was still inferior to cultivating on Half-God Continent.

But cultivating divine arts inside the Cosmic Cauldron was suitable.

Before he was dragged into the Five-Element World, if his Heart-Dodging Divine Art had been perfected, he wouldn't have been pulled into that youth's Five-Element World.

So this time, he must perfect and cultivate the Heart-Dodging Divine Art to a certain level.

In Ding Huan's view, once perfected, this dodging technique could even surpass Instant Teleportation.

Before cultivating the Heart-Dodging Divine Art, Ding Huan entered his True Spirit World.

Now, his True Spirit World could no longer be called a True Spirit World—it should be called a Five-Element World.

If it continued to evolve, this Five-Element World might one day become a Rule-Chaos World.

Although not much time had passed, the dark regions at the edge of his Five-Element World had greatly diminished; most dark zones were gradually vanishing, transforming into new areas of the Five-Element World.

The entire world's area had expanded more than doubled, and the celestial and terrestrial rules were far clearer; the immortal spirit herbs he had barely tended to were now thriving even more vigorously.

Ding Huan immediately landed before that giant tree.

The giant tree had been brought into his world only recently; its leaves, already somewhat yellowed, now appeared even more withered.

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Ding Huan chose a spacious area and planted the giant tree, then embedded two Half-God Veins and two top-grade Immortal Spirit Veins beneath it.

The giant tree's life force began to dissipate more slowly—but did not stop.

This puzzled Ding Huan.

He was certain his Five-Element World was no weaker in rules than the youth's previous Five-Element World.

Moreover, back then, the giant tree had continuously supplied life force to that youth; now that the youth was dead, four qi veins had been added beneath the tree.

Why was the giant tree's life force still dissipating?

Ding Huan placed his hand on the tree's roots; an extremely dense life force surged toward him.

This life force wasn't just dense—it carried a grand Dao qi far surpassing ordinary Dao patterns.

His guess was correct: this giant tree was no ordinary thing.

Feeling the life force still slowly fading, Ding Huan felt helpless—could this tree have been bound to that youth?

Was that why it refused to serve him now?

With his own recovery ability, he didn't need the life force from this giant tree.

To Ding Huan, no matter how powerful this tree was, if it couldn't serve him, its death didn't matter.

Ding Huan stopped worrying about the giant tree's life force; he would ask Ji Luo when he returned to Half-God Continent.

Knowing was better; not knowing didn't matter.

Leaving his Five-Element World, Ding Huan continued refining the Heart-Dodging Divine Art.

Three years later, Ding Huan could now activate the Heart-Dodging Divine Art at will.

If he were now placed atop the Shenhe in the Divine Source Lands, he could easily break free from the fate divine array's constraints and vanish.

He scanned with his spiritual sense—Yijie's control of the Cosmic Cauldron was stable enough, but the speed was far too slow.

At Yijie's pace, it would take a hundred years to reach Half-God Continent.

Ding Huan stepped onto the Cosmic Cauldron's deck; Yijie immediately rushed over, its eyes gleaming with longing—Ding Huan knew the creature wanted the Soul-Linking Fruit.

The Soul-Linking Fruit held no use for Ding Huan; even upon returning to Half-God Continent, he might not find a Soul-Linking Purple-Faced Fruit.

Ding Huan simply pulled out a Soul-Linking Blue-Faced Fruit and tossed it to Yijie: "Go cultivate it. I'll take over control of the Cosmic Cauldron from now on."

The moment Ding Huan took control of the Cosmic Cauldron, its speed instantly increased more than tenfold.

To return to Half-God Continent sooner, Ding Huan ceased further cultivation; among the Three Thousand Great Dao arts, many were divine techniques.

But cultivating these divine techniques required time to comprehend.

For Ding Huan, these years had been spent constantly cultivating or preparing to cultivate.

Sometimes, pausing cultivation for a while wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

Whether it was the owner of that parchment or the youth he'd thrown into the Cosmic Vortex.

They threatened him only because his power was insufficient.

After returning to Half-God Continent, he would lock himself away in intense seclusion; once his power grew strong enough to reverse the sun and moon, who would dare challenge him?

"Huan Ye…" A hoarse voice came. Ding Huan saw Yijie's eyes gleaming with triumph.

This creature must have heard him refer to himself as "Huan Ye," so it immediately adopted the title.

Yet despite being merely a baby pig, its voice sounded like that of an old man in his seventies or eighties—utterly devoid of youthfulness.

Remembering it was just a pig, Ding Huan felt no real disappointment.

"What's going on?" Ding Huan planned to ask this pig about its cultivation method later.

Yi Jie hurriedly said: "Earlier, when I was controlling the Pot, several people chased me. I sped up and took a year to shake them off."

It was normal for someone to chase the Cosmic Pot; Ding Huan didn't give it a second thought.

The Cosmic Pot travels through the void; anyone with intent who sees it will surely try to intercept it.

Didn't the Ku family suffer precisely because they tried to intercept the Cosmic Pot, leaving their Yue Xing Tian branch with less than one-tenth of its former strength?

If he controlled the Cosmic Pot himself, even if someone scanned it with their divine sense, they'd have no chance to catch up.

The Cosmic Pot's speed was simply too fast—not measurable as speed at all, but as instantaneous teleportation.

Not even chasing the Cosmic Pot was possible; at its peak speed, even divine sense couldn't touch it.

Though Ding Huan hadn't cared, he still unconsciously scanned his Cosmic Pot.

When Ding Huan's divine sense landed behind the Cosmic Pot, his expression darkened.

Someone had left a divine sense mark on the Cosmic Pot's protective array.

Only someone extraordinary could leave a divine sense mark outside the Cosmic Pot's protective array.

Perhaps Yi Jie controlled the Cosmic Pot too slowly, but even at its slowest, the Cosmic Pot's speed far surpassed any ordinary top-grade immortal treasure.

Whoever left the divine sense mark on the Cosmic Pot must be at least as strong as that insect.

Ding Huan's divine sense settled on the mark, pondering the strength of the one who left it.

To know the opponent's strength, he'd have to see them first.

Ding Huan didn't touch the divine sense mark.

He slowed the Cosmic Pot's speed and carved void-monitoring array patterns into the space it passed through.

He wanted to see who exactly was chasing his Cosmic Pot.

"Yi Jie, what cultivation method do you practice?" Ding Huan decided to raise Yi Jie's cultivation level; otherwise, controlling the Cosmic Pot would remain too slow.

"I don't practice any cultivation method—I naturally absorb heavenly and earthly primordial qi," Yi Jie said, having just learned to speak and eager to keep chatting with Ding Huan.

But Ding Huan's expression was grim, so it dared not speak further.

Ding Huan nodded—it must be an innate ability, automatically absorbing heavenly and earthly primordial qi.

"Wait over there for now. I'll see if I can find a cultivation method for you."

Gesturing for Yi Jie to move aside, Ding Huan continued setting up the monitoring array patterns.

After several days, Ding Huan captured the image beneath the void-monitoring array.

It was a void skiff.

On the skiff's deck stood a man and a woman.

Though he couldn't sense their cultivation aura, Ding Huan could perceive from their skiff's trajectory and speed that both were at least as strong as Dao Master Daoli.

Ding Huan simply stopped the Cosmic Pot.

He didn't think these two together could take him down.

Only half a day passed before the skiff he'd seen appeared within his divine sense.

In an instant, the skiff halted directly before the Cosmic Pot.

On the skiff, the man was peerlessly handsome, the woman exquisitely elegant.

"Friend, are you Ding Huan?" To Ding Huan's surprise, the man recognized him.

Ding Huan meticulously combed through his memories—he was certain he'd never met them.

"This is Ding Mou. Have we met before?" Ding Huan stared at the two in bewilderment.

The man laughed heartily: "I am Zhuo Yao, and this is my wife, Seeing Seeing Yan Qi."

Before Ding Huan could speak, Zhuo Yao continued:

"We chased after you because of your flying treasure. A friend mentioned it to me—she even gave me an image of it."

Hearing Zhuo Yao mention his flying treasure, Ding Huan felt somewhat relieved.

His Cosmic Pot was indeed unmistakable; anyone who saw it once would never forget it.

"My friend's name is Jia Baihe. She said that before meeting my wife and me, her only friend was Ding Huan. My wife and I have known Daoist Jia for many years, and we believe anyone she deems worthy is no ordinary person.

Now that I've met you, I see she was right. Before this, please forgive me—I left a divine sense mark on your flying treasure."

With these words, Zhuo Yao raised his hand and retracted the divine sense mark he'd placed outside the Cosmic Pot's protective array.

Ding Huan no longer cared about the mark—he urgently asked: "Daoists, do you know where Jia Baihe is now?"

Zhuo Yao sighed: "Daoist Baihe has passed away. That's why I rushed to catch up—to tell you, Brother Ding. Alas..."

Ding Huan's mind rang hollow.

Had Jia Baihe perished?

Seeing Seeing Yan Qi, who had remained silent until now, suddenly spoke: "Big Brother Ding, I was like a sister to Baihe. She spoke of you more than anyone else."