From the distance, Ao Minxing, Luke, Liu Mu, Ma Yu, and the divine beasts watched with a shade of apprehension in their gazes.

The intensity of drawing in the energies of heaven and earth in that single moment had reached the absolute zenith of the Pseudo-God Realm, and this was achieved even by the most powerful of the divine beasts.

If it had progressed any further, the True God Realm among the divine beasts would have manifested in this world.

Subtly, everyone felt a trace of relief in their hearts. Over the past five centuries, although many were dissatisfied with the Divine Dragon controlling the passage entrance, fortunately, no one had dared to challenge its authority. After today, that authority would surely be even more firmly established, and no one would be foolish enough to court disaster again.

After all, before this, while they could sense the incredibly potent aura emanating from the Divine Dragon, and gleaned hints of its power from the submissive beasts around it, they never truly grasped the scale.

But in this instant, they finally understood: this Divine Dragon had concealed its depth so profoundly. The sheer might it commanded was something absolutely beyond the ability of anyone present to contend with. Even Ao Minxing, who wielded the divine artifact Five Elements Ring and could unleash a fivefold power amplification, might not necessarily suppress it in terms of sheer, raw strength.

The fundamental difference in innate physique between humans and divine beasts was too vast. When the Divine Dragon maximized its transformation, the resulting advantage in pure power was overwhelmingly immense.

Yet, in this moment, everyone’s hearts were conflicted—some holding joy, others worry.

Liu Mu, Mou Zilong, Di Shitian, and others were naturally overjoyed and deeply grateful to the Divine Dragon. He Yi Ming now possessed strength comparable to an ordinary Pseudo-God Realm expert; if he were to then obtain the Five Elements Ring, the destructive potential unleashed by that combination would be terrifying. Even common Pseudo-God Realm experts would be forced to retreat a considerable distance from them. However, the Divine Dragon’s actions were not without cost; the condition was that He Yi Ming must venture to the lair of the deathly creatures—a truly arduous requirement. They could only hope He Yi Ming would return safe and sound.

As for those holding grudges against He Yi Ming, they felt resentment toward the Divine Dragon. Still, even if they were granted immense courage at this moment, they wouldn't dare step forward to cause trouble.

For a time, the entire world seemed to fall silent. They watched intently the lightning and thunder in the distance, the celestial phenomena triggered by the massive convergence of world energy. Beyond that, there was no other sound emanating from the Divine Way.

※※※※

Inside the Nine Dragons Furnace, the upper and lower divine artifacts possessed distinct boundaries, but the divine light they emitted faced far less obstruction. Especially the central portion, which had been actively resisting within the furnace, now showed signs of merging.

Although He Yi Ming did not know whether this change was beneficial or detrimental, he understood that it was precisely because of this profoundly strange transformation that the required energy input was escalating in an almost infinite manner.

The speed at which the power of heaven and earth surged in from the outside now far exceeded his wildest imagination. Before today, he had never conceived that merely drawing upon the world's energy could, within a limited scope, generate a massive power that was in no way inferior to the might of the cosmos itself.

Feeling the swirling fierce winds, the thunder, and the wild convergence of different elemental energies around him, He Yi Ming was truly astonished. At this moment, he even felt the earth trembling, the heavens wailing, as if this entire world might collapse at any second.

This power was definitively not human power, nor the power of ordinary Divine Way practitioners.

If the power of the Divine Way was something that should not be wielded on the continent, then the power the Divine Dragon was now exhibiting should not belong to this world.

This power was a forbidden force.

However, when this power reached its absolute peak, the two divine artifacts within the Nine Dragons Furnace finally received sufficient energy from heaven and earth. They behaved like fish newly returned to water, swimming freely. The two newly emergent streams of consciousness, starting weak, gradually grew stronger.

These were the intents of two divine weapons. They were not souls He Yi Ming had deliberately captured from the outside, but residual thoughts embedded within the rare materials themselves.

When the origin power entered the divine weapon, when the abundant energy of heaven and earth provided ample nourishment, and when He Yi Ming’s blood ignited the last vestiges of latent energy within the materials, this wisp of residual spirit—like a seedling just breaking the soil—weathered the storms and ultimately grew into a towering tree.

The two streams of consciousness gradually clarified, strengthened, and successfully merged with the intent He Yi Ming had already placed within the Nine Dragons Furnace.

These two divine weapons inherently belonged to He Yi Ming. Now that their primary consciousness had formed, they naturally merged with their master. This process unfolded as smoothly as water flowing downhill, without the slightest suspense.

Only after He Yi Ming fully accepted their consciousness did he finally allow himself to relax completely.

He knew that, with the assistance of the Divine Dragon, these two divine artifacts had finally been forged successfully. Moreover, just as He Yi Ming felt, these two artifacts were likely far from ordinary.

Forging two divine weapons simultaneously—such a feat was entirely unprecedented. Even in the bygone era when the Divine Way reigned supreme, such a thing had never occurred.

Yet, this was not an endeavor He Yi Ming undertook without reason.

In the ancient text on Divine Forging he obtained from the former Divine Calculator, this method was proposed in the final chapters. However, the text also recorded that the requirements for forging two divine weapons concurrently were exceptionally stringent, with the most crucial elements, aside from the materials themselves, being the overwhelming presence of world energy.

Forging a single divine weapon required a Pseudo-God Realm expert to exert full effort in drawing in the energies of heaven and earth. To forge two simultaneously...

The only ones seemingly capable of achieving this level of exertion were the two legendary supreme beings of the True God Realm from ancient times.

Of course, this was also because the task of gathering world energy could only be reliably accomplished by a single entity. If two or three Pseudo-God Realm experts tried to gather the energy concurrently, even if they practiced the same cultivation technique, the world energy in that area would completely collapse, rendering it unusable for forging divine artifacts.

This was the true reason He Yi Ming watched the Divine Dragon exert itself to the utmost without offering any direct assistance.

This time, if He Yi Ming had not encountered the Divine Dragon, and if the Dragon had not proposed sending him to such a dangerous place, he would not have attempted such a near-impossible endeavor.

He had a calculated contingency in mind: if the forging failed, he would have an excuse to refuse the mission. In these final few months, as long as he stayed close to Liu Mu and the others, the Divine Dragon surely wouldn't go all out to destroy him, would it?

However, he ultimately underestimated the Divine Dragon’s sheer power. Its display was absolutely at the apex within the Pseudo-God Realm. Supported by such an enormous expenditure of power, the two divine artifacts were forged successfully through some stroke of inexplicable fortune by He Yi Ming.

Since success had been achieved, He Yi Ming naturally accepted it immediately. The moment he let out a long breath, the frantic suction emanating from the Nine Dragons Furnace immediately eased. Although it hadn't stopped entirely, the Divine Dragon instantly perceived the subtle shift.

"You succeeded?" The Dragon's voice carried a hint of exhaustion, though it was suppressed well enough that one might not notice it without careful attention.

He Yi Ming nodded heavily. He looked up at the sky, carefully calculating, and his expression shifted slightly.

Unbeknownst to him, he had been engaged in this forging process for a full three days and nights.

For him, these three days and nights had passed without any sensation, for he had been utterly submerged in the world of forging. At that time, apart from constantly demanding the world energy gathered by the Divine Dragon, he had no other preoccupation.

Although he felt some worry initially, once the world energy drawn by the Divine Dragon reached its peak intensity, he became completely engrossed, with no capacity to consider anything else.

Taking deep breaths, three days and three nights—the Divine Dragon had sustained that intensity for a full three days and nights...

In that moment, He Yi Ming truly grasped the power of this divine beast, a power that seemed to stretch beyond the limits of the Pseudo-God Realm.

A rather strange thought suddenly surfaced in his mind: was this Divine Dragon truly only in the Pseudo-God Realm?

The surrounding world energy swiftly calmed. Sustaining such an intensity—an extreme exertion even for this world—night and day, was proving too much even for the Divine Dragon.

"What exactly were you forging?" the Dragon's voice rang out, tinged with indignation. "Even without rough blanks, forging a mere Five Elements Ring shouldn't require this much effort."

He Yi Ming shrugged, lifted the lid of the Nine Dragons Furnace, and a dazzling five-colored light immediately flared forth.

He reached into the furnace. With a slight twitch of his little finger, the Black Tortoise Shell, which had shrunk to the size of a grain of rice, actively adhered itself to his digit.

The moment his finger touched the shell, an overwhelming wave of ecstasy washed through He Yi Ming's heart.

Subsequently, the Black Tortoise Shell melted into his body without anyone noticing. At that instant, He Yi Ming’s hand grasped the Five Elements Ring, which had been completely concealed by the shell.

With a flick of his wrist, he retrieved the Five Elements Ring. In his hand, the five distinct colors of the artifact were both merged and separate. But one thing was certain: the power of the Five Elements had climbed to its absolute peak.

In his hand rested a genuine divine artifact, the Five Elements Ring.

"Esteemed Divine Dragon, what I have forged is definitively the divine artifact Five Elements Ring," He Yi Ming declared, waving the artifact with a show of righteous indignation. "The five elements, mutually generating and restraining, are endless..."

His body was enveloped by the five beams of light deliberately released, and while the aura surrounding him could not remotely compare to the peak power the Divine Dragon had just displayed, it was not something anyone could afford to underestimate.

"My Lord, the Five Elements Ring has been revered by past experts as the foremost divine artifact under heaven. The power of one element is equivalent to one divine artifact; therefore, the power of five elements is akin to five divine artifacts. Thus, it is understandable that you expended a bit more effort," He Yi Ming earnestly attempted to spin his tale.