The fox clan woman’s pretty face shifted, then instantly smoothed over, and she let out a soft, melodic laugh. “Brother Wu, you’re fast. Little sister hasn’t offended you, why must you pursue me so relentlessly!”

Seeing the man in the dark gold robe appear, Ye Qin’s heart plummeted, and he couldn't help but groan inwardly. That man in the dark gold robe must be the Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint! How unlucky can I be to run into two Demon Saints! If they actually fight, even the residual shockwaves could be fatal. He quickly scanned his surroundings, already preparing his escape route.

“Spirit Fox, you are the guardian of the Dusk Sanctuary, yet you engage in theft, stealing the Holy Relic most vital to the Sanctuary. Hand over the Relic, and this Saint will spare your life today! If you refuse, though the Demon Realm boasts billions of domains, there will be no place left for you to hide.”

The Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint stared at the fox woman, his face ashen, his voice sharp yet deliberately lowered. He didn't even glance at Ye Qin nearby; compared to the Holy Relic he intended to seize, Ye Qin wasn't even worth one ten-millionth of his attention.

The fox woman’s smile vanished, and she let out a cold snort. “Brother Wu has quite the audacity. If I don’t hand it over, what can you do to me?!” As she spoke, her expression changed again, and she extended her right hand, chuckling lightly. “Besides, this Holy Relic doesn't belong to your Three-Legged Crow clan. Why should I give it to you? You’re merely a squad leader guarding the Sanctuary, not much stronger than little sister. If the Relic fell into your hands, you’d surely hoard it for yourself! Given that, why shouldn’t little sister keep it instead!”

Ye Qin had been ready to flee, but upon hearing this, he couldn't help but look back—what kind of Holy Relic could provoke two Demon Saints into a fierce battle?

He saw it: resting lightly on the pale, jade-like palm of the fox woman’s right hand, a simple, unadorned grey egg.

The grey egg’s exterior was unremarkable. If one didn't look closely at the fine cracks webbing its shell, it resembled some sort of ancient, mysterious inscription. Deep within the markings, a chilling purple light and a grey light occasionally flickered—two colors that seemed divine yet illusory, light as nothingness. One might even mistake it for a common hawk egg.

The grey egg...

Ye Qin was stunned speechless, his body tense and rigid, his heart violently shaking. His gaze was locked onto the grey egg in the fox woman’s palm, unable to shift even a fraction of an inch.

In that instant, countless memories surged into his mind like a tide!

He had once been a youth in Zhuqi County, Wu Kingdom, on the Central Continent.

At the age of twelve, while climbing Eagle Cliff to gather herbs, he discovered a grey egg in an eagle’s nest atop the cliff.

It was because he consumed that peculiar grey egg that the Purple Mansion manifested within his Sea of Consciousness, granting him the unimaginable immortal destiny that followed… setting him upon the immortal path of the cultivation world.

Otherwise, with his inferior Five-Spirit Root aptitude, even if he stumbled upon immortal fortune by chance, he would have had no hope of achieving much on the immortal road. He would likely have died in the Qi Refining stage, at best struggling in the Foundation Establishment stage, forever gazing up at the Golden Core Ancestors of the Immortal Sects.

He had never understood the origin of that grey egg, or why it transformed into the Purple Mansion in his Sea of Consciousness.

Occasionally, late at night, the matter would leave him utterly perplexed, with no clue to follow.

Over a hundred years of traversing the cultivation world, Ye Qin had gradually grown accustomed to the existence of the Purple Mansion and stopped dwelling on its origin.

But now… the grey egg reappeared before his eyes. Everything had happened too suddenly.

“This grey egg is a Holy Relic of the Demon Realm?” Ye Qin whispered.

Today, he finally learned that the grey egg he swallowed was a Holy Relic of the Demon Realm.

However… even knowing it was a Holy Relic, he still didn't know what it truly was!

And how could such a Holy Relic appear on the barren Eagle Cliff of the Central Continent? Too many mysteries remained unsolved.

Ye Qin was still lost in thought when he was suddenly jolted awake to see the fox woman already turning to flee.

The fox woman’s form blurred, transforming into a Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox with fiery red fur, dashing rapidly through the mountain jungle, vanishing in a whoosh of red light dozens of miles away.

“You dare seek death!!!”

The Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint roared in fury, soaring into the sky and transforming into a colossal, thousand-zhang-sized Three-Legged Crow, flapping its wings rapidly toward the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox in pursuit.

A furious shriek echoed, and the Crow smashed its wings in the air. The feathers erupted in golden light, condensing into thousands of golden flame-arrows, carrying blinding brilliance and a temperature capable of melting the magma beneath the earth, which rained down upon the Nine-Tailed Spirit Fox hiding in the jungle below.

Swoosh! Hiss!

Ten thousand golden arrows descended like a waterfall, engulfing a range spanning dozens of miles.

This fire was the True Solar Fire. The power of this fire was equivalent to the True Fire of a Transformation Stage cultivator. The consequences for an ordinary Nascent Soul cultivator who touched it were unimaginable.

The intensely scorching rain of fire descended upon the mountains and forests. Towering flames instantly erupted, their tongues licking high, waves of heat surging forth. In mere moments, countless trembling demonic beasts within the forest were burned to ash beneath the fierce flames. Mountains and peaks melted.

The single strike unleashed in the Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint’s fury instantly turned the landscape spanning several dozen miles into a fiery sea of magma.

“Not good!”

This all happened too quickly. By the time Ye Qin saw the Demon Saint unleash the waterfall of golden arrows, it was already too late. He desperately activated his Wind Riding Art, trying to escape the periphery of the arrow barrage.

That massive tree bearing the Vermillion Fruits was also within the range of the golden arrows.

The withered Blood Vine clinging to the Vermillion Fruit Giant Tree suddenly stirred wildly, its light surging. It transformed into a blood-colored shield dozens of zhang wide, enveloping the entire tree and blocking several of the golden arrows descending from the sky.

Boom!

A rolling, monstrous wave of flame swept toward the Vermillion Fruit Giant Tree.

Ye Qin’s peripheral vision swept over the tree’s blood-colored shield and noticed the Ice Lotus Seed located a hundred zhang away from the tree, just outside the vine’s protective barrier.

A daring thought flashed through his mind. He dove downward, rushing toward the Ice Lotus Seed, but instead of taking it, he tunneled directly into the earth beneath it.

About half an hour later, the terrestrial flames gradually subsided.

The Ice Lotus Seed’s light dimmed, and the surrounding scalding magma had already frozen solid.

Ye Qin scrambled out of the earth, his hair and eyebrows coated in frost, shivering uncontrollably. He used his divine sense to pull the Ice Lotus Seed into his Purple Mansion, then fled quickly.

He had hidden near the Vermillion Fruit Giant Tree, a hundred zhang away, leveraging the blood-colored shield and the Ice Lotus Seed to evade the overwhelming torrent of True Solar Fire. In this entire zone spanning dozens of miles, only the ground near the Giant Tree remained intact due to the protection of the Blood-Devouring Vine.

Fortunately, with the True Fire raging, the Blood-Devouring Demon Vine was fully occupied fending off the assault and had no capacity to notice the minor cultivator using it as cover.

After this wave of True Fire passed, the Blood-Devouring Demon Vine was left looking ‘skinned and battered,’ riddled with small, blackened, smoking patches, and its blood-red luster greatly diminished. It swayed somewhat bewilderedly, unsure why it had suddenly endured such a powerful and frenzied attack, which had severely depleted its vitality; it would likely take years to recover.

“It seems the Three-Legged Crow Demon Saint is far stronger than the Blood-Devouring Demon Vine! I wonder what rank of Demon Saint he is!” Ye Qin muttered, and before the Vine could regain its composure, he had already fled a thousand zhang away.

He had racked his brains previously trying to retrieve the Ice Lotus Seed.

But the battle between the two Demon Saints had allowed him to pick it up instead—he couldn't help but feel a mix of amusement and bitterness.

Ye Qin chose a direction, suppressed his aura, and retreated stealthily until he was several hundred miles away. Only then did he stop, survey the surrounding mountains, select a small peak, and quickly excavate a crude stone chamber among the rocks at the base using his flying sword. He then set up a camouflage and concealment formation and hid inside the chamber.

Inside the chamber, after laying down several layers of restrictions, Ye Qin finally retrieved the Vermillion Fruit from his Purple Mansion and began examining it closely.

The exquisite, crystal-clear Vermillion Fruit lay quietly in Ye Qin’s hand, emitting a soft purplish-red glow and exuding an incredibly tempting, pure spiritual fragrance. Just breathing it in brought profound comfort throughout his body.

Ye Qin, long experienced in refining spiritual pills, knew that this spiritual aroma guaranteed no side effects.

The Vermillion Fruit existed only in legends within the texts of the East Sea Cultivation World—a supreme spiritual medicine capable of propelling a Qi Refining cultivator directly to the ninth layer of the Nascent Soul stage.

Generally, spiritual medicines were far more effective when refined into pills.

However, it was likely that no one in the East Sea Cultivation World yet knew how to refine the Vermillion Fruit into a pill, so it could only be consumed raw.

Ye Qin used his finger as a blade, shooting out a beam of qi light, and casually sliced the Vermillion Fruit into several dozen portions. He stored the seeds within the fruit in his Purple Mansion for later use and packed the fruit flesh into a jade box to prevent the spiritual energy from dissipating.

Ye Qin delayed no longer. Wrapping a small piece of the fruit, no larger than a fingernail, with his mana, he placed it in his mouth, pressing it against his tongue, allowing the vital energy within the fruit to slowly enter his body.

The Vermillion Fruit dissolved rapidly upon contact, turning into spiritual liquid that flowed into his abdomen.

Ye Qin was horrified to discover that a torrent of abundant vital energy was rushing into his Dantian at an incredible speed. The meridians began circulating it, but they seemed incapable of containing it. This vital energy was extremely pure; as it flowed past the Niwan point between his eyebrows, it transformed into massive amounts of light and entered his Purple Mansion.

Ye Qin’s brow tightened, and he let out a muffled grunt. He immediately began running his cultivation technique at full power to absorb the skyrocketing spiritual energy.

This massive vital energy seemed to surge forth endlessly from that tiny piece of Vermillion Fruit flesh, pounding against his Dantian Sea of Qi wave after wave, exceeding his capacity to contain it. Gradually, Ye Qin felt his Dantian swelling and churning, causing extreme discomfort.

Ye Qin was greatly alarmed. He forcibly compressed the internal vital energy and poured it into the Niwan Point.

Inside the Purple Mansion, Ye Qin’s Nascent Soul worked frantically to absorb the incoming light energy.

The Nascent Soul, which had been only about the size of a fist, visibly grew larger, increasing by a small circumference as it absorbed the torrent of vital energy. Though it seemed minuscule, that represented an amount of growth that would normally require at least several years of arduous cultivation.

Caught within this surging, wave-like torrent of vital energy, Ye Qin’s divine sense gradually blurred. Illusory distractions flooded his consciousness, and he was nearly losing control of his meridians.

Just as he was drifting into confusion, Ye Qin suddenly snapped awake, feeling a jolt. The Sitting in Oblivion Sutra had begun circulating on its own, suppressing the chaotic illusions.

After examining the state of his meridians internally, Ye Qin let out a small sigh of relief, finding no chaotic damage from qi deviation. His heart settled.