Inside the stone chamber, He Yiming sat cross-legged upon the stone bed. In his hands, he held a tome of the Divine Path, concentrating on its profound insights.

Of the two humans and two beasts accompanying him, He Yiming settled into his secluded cultivation with complete ease, viewing this trip to the Crystal Palace as an unusual path to refinement.

It wasn't that his vigilance was lacking, but rather that among the four of them, the other three required no cultivation whatsoever.

Divine Beasts, compared to humans, were not only individually stronger but also far more carefree; even mere sleep allowed their power to slowly advance. This incredible inherent talent was something all humans undoubtedly envied.

While White Horse Thunder and the Treasure Pig could engage in intense secluded practice, they certainly wouldn't choose to do so within the confines of this cramped Crystal Palace.

As for One Hundred and Eight, there was even less need to speak of it—if he required seclusion, the entire world would truly be turned upside down. Thus, after giving instructions, He Yiming shut himself away, treating the others as if they were air, and retrieved the Divine Path Art gifted to him by the Divine Dragon in the Land of Death, slowly immersing himself in its study.

The content detailed within this book of the Divine Path was profoundly esoteric; the deeper He Yiming delved, the more he sensed its vastness and depth. Naturally, as his research progressed, he grasped one crucial point: although the Divine Dragon clearly favored the Five Elements Sect, why hadn't it handed this book to Ao Minxing or the others?

The reason was that everything recorded and summarized within this text consisted of cultivation secrets and experiential insights best suited for practitioners possessing the Innate Five Elements Body. If the user did not possess the Innate Five Elements Body and relied solely on acquired methods to forcibly boost their strength to achieve the Acquired Five Elements Body, then practicing the tenets within this manual would not only be unhelpful but would likely cause chaotic disruption of internal vital energy. In mild cases, this resulted in qi deviation and the complete loss of divine power; in severe cases, the power would spiral out of control, leading to self-destruction.

Though the Five Elements Sect was immensely powerful, throughout the ages, many had desperately tried to cultivate the Acquired Five Elements Body to inherit the divine artifact, the Five Elements Ring. Alas, apart from the founding ancestor, the Five Elements Elder, no one else possessed the Innate Five Elements Body.

The Divine Dragon was clearly well aware of this fact, which is why it never dared to present this book. Doing so would not be helping the Five Elements Sect, but rather maliciously setting a trap for them.

Stroking the manual in his hand, a peculiar thought flickered in He Yiming’s mind.

If this book were placed in Ao Minxing’s hands without revealing the inherent dangers, Ao Minxing might be unable to resist the temptation to cultivate it. By the time he truly began practicing and sensed the peril, it might already be too late for remedy.

It was, admittedly, an excellent method for harming someone silently. However, after much hesitation, He Yiming discarded the notion.

After all, though he had grievances with the Five Elements Sect, the relationship was not an intractable knot. With the downfall of the Zhan Family of the Northwest and the Yu Family of Great Shen, his resentment toward the Five Elements Sect seemed to have largely dissipated.

Furthermore, He Yiming held a deep wariness of the Divine Dragon behind the Five Elements Sect. He couldn't be certain whether this dragon would act against him should the sect fall into complete ruin because of his actions.

Until he possessed the strength to contend with a Divine Dragon, He Yiming absolutely would not risk testing a boundary that might belong to the dragon.

After a moment of consideration, He Yiming stood up. He gently pushed open the stone door and arrived outside the room where Ao Minxing and the other resided, drawing surprised glances from the Treasure Pig and the others.

He did not conceal his presence, nor did he exert any imposing aura; he simply stood calmly by the doorway, making no move to greet them. He trusted that Ao Minxing would sense his arrival.

As expected, the stone door opened swiftly. However, Ao Minxing clearly had no intention of inviting him in; instead, he silently stepped out and quietly closed the door behind him.

He Yiming inwardly acknowledged his estimation was correct: Ao Borui must have consumed the divine medicine nectar and was currently meditating on the impact of reaching a higher realm. Only this would explain why Ao Minxing, who was guarding him, was being so cautious.

"Brother He, what business do you have with this old man?" Ao Minxing asked in a deep voice.

He Yiming smiled faintly. "Brother Ao, I have long admired the Divine Path Tome you mentioned. If it were possible, might you grant it to me now?"

Ao Minxing frowned slightly. "Did we not agree that I would give it to you after everything concludes and we return to the Five Elements Sect?"

He Yiming scratched his scalp, musing, "Brother Ao, I know you are concerned that we might wander around freely and ignore directions. In that case, I guarantee that until we return to the location of that Divine Path Teleportation Array Diagram, I will absolutely follow your command. What do you say?"

Ao Minxing’s eyes brightened slightly. In truth, they all understood clearly that Ao Minxing had painstakingly set up the Divine Path Teleportation Array Diagram specifically to prevent them from locating the Crystal Palace's precise coordinates. But if He Yiming and the others left and chose not to use the teleportation diagram, instead running about randomly, the Crystal Palace's location would almost certainly be exposed.

The thought of the Crystal Palace's location being revealed, coupled with He Yiming’s Five Elements Body and the divine artifact Five Elements Ring in his possession, gave Ao Minxing a severe headache.

He looked deeply at the other man. "Your guarantee—does it include all of you?"

He Yiming immediately raised his hand and declared loudly, "I swear here and now, Brother Ao, that as long as you bestow the Tome of Insights upon me, none of us will intentionally stray beyond your sight before we return to the Divine Path Teleportation Array Diagram."

Ao Minxing immediately felt a surge of relief. Oaths taken by martial practitioners directly address the core of one's being; they are unbreakable promises, never to be revoked. A person who is fickle or speaks insincerely inevitably harbors great flaws in character, making it virtually impossible for them to ascend to the ranks of high-level practitioners.

He slowly nodded. "Brother He, it is not that I am unwilling to give you this book; it is simply that this book remains within the Five Elements Sect and is not in my possession."

A clear look of disappointment flashed across He Yiming's face.

While part of his motivation was indeed to see the cultivation manual sooner, another part was to ease Ao Minxing's worries and distance himself and his group from suspicion.

Once they departed in an outwardly compliant manner, Ao Minxing would never suspect that they possessed other means of locating this place.

This way, even if his group later explored the Crystal Palace in secret and triggered some unforeseen change, Ao Minxing would never link the incident back to them.

It could be said that this was He Yiming's true objective; requesting the Divine Path cultivation manual was purely a pretext and an ancillary outcome.

Ao Minxing, of course, could not fathom He Yiming's true intentions. Seeing the regret on his face, he coughed lightly. "Brother He, I have studied the cultivation method for the Divine Artifact Domain myself and was fortunate enough to succeed. If you trust me, I can impart it to you orally."

He Yiming was overjoyed and quickly agreed.

If he had merely obtained the Divine Path Tome, it would require lengthy contemplation to achieve success. But receiving guidance directly from a senior master would surely yield results far superior to self-exploration.

As for whether Ao Minxing might withhold anything, that was difficult to judge, but one thing He Yiming could be certain of: the old man would never transmit a counterfeit technique.

At He Yiming's level of Divine Path cultivation, he would certainly know if a technique imparted by a peer was genuine or not. Moreover, if Ao Minxing did such a thing, the Five Elements Sect's reputation would be ruined, drawing public outrage. It must be remembered that He Yiming was no longer fighting alone; the peer-level experts alongside him and the two prominent sects backing him carried significant prestige.

Unless Ao Minxing wished to stir up a hornet's nest, he would never commit such an utterly foolish act.

Seeing He Yiming agree, Ao Minxing made no ceremony, seating himself right by the stone door and launching into a detailed explanation. He Yiming sat down beside him, listening with rapt attention.

Whether human Divine Path practitioners or Divine Beasts, the only way to possess one's own Domain was to advance to the Pseudo-God Realm. Only at this stage could one gain the clearest, most direct understanding of Origin Power and fully unleash it.

However, it was unfortunate that the cultivation of the vast majority of Divine Path experts stalled at the threshold of the Void God Realm; they spent their entire lives unable to break through to the Pseudo-God realm.

In the past, the Divine Dragon and others gathered all the world's Divine Path experts and entered the Land of Death, remaining there for five hundred years, resulting in the demise of most of the Divine Path powerhouses. In such a perilous and harsh environment, where they lived under constant threat and engaged in countless battles, not all human experts managed to successfully advance to the Pseudo-God Realm.

From this, one could see how exceedingly difficult it was for human Divine Path cultivation to advance.

Conversely, Divine Beasts, provided they survived, could mostly cross this step and achieve the Pseudo-God Realm. Of course, due to their physical constitution, Divine Beasts generally reached their limit at this stage; achieving the True God Realm beyond that had never been heard of.

At least, two True God Realm experts had appeared among humans, whereas this level had never been rumored among Divine Beasts.

Among human powerhouses were countless Heavenly Prodigies, distinguished not only by their profound cultivation but also by their sharp intellect.

Thus, they forged divine artifacts and began combining their own power with these artifacts. If the attribute of their inherent power—their most fundamental innate energy—matched the intrinsic attribute of a divine artifact, and they succeeded in fusing them, then even Void God Realm experts could borrow the artifact's origin power and possess their own Domain.

Naturally, achieving this step was far from easy; even the most naturally gifted human experts could not claim certainty of success. Just as human experts could not guarantee their progression to the Pseudo-God Realm, finding a suitable divine artifact and successfully merging its origin was also an exceedingly rare occurrence.

However, for He Yiming, none of this seemed to present an insurmountable obstacle.

He listened intently, his eyes growing brighter and brighter...