This was the most agonizing, yet most joyous, day for Old Gu—tears of pain and deep emotion mingling as he encountered the finest person in the entire world.

This black tally-token glowed with a deep, eerie darkness, as if streaks of golden thread outlined esoteric, profound runes, emanating an aura of stiff, difficult-to-decipher mystery.

"What is this?" Xiao Hei asked, astonished.

Ye Chen did not reply. His consciousness permeated the token, and soon, a brief message flooded his mind: "Tianwu Mountain token. With this, one may become a disciple of the Tianwu King!"

"A disciple token?" Ye Chen raised an eyebrow. After a moment of thought, he secured the token. With this, he could become a disciple of the Tianwu King—a being capable of creating forty-nine Tianwu Mountains, each one a peak divine artifact, a comprehensive artifact combining domain and spaceship capabilities!

Such a figure must surely transcend the level of a deity!

At Ye Chen's current realm, he couldn't even glimpse such a person; the gap was more than just a little.

"If I could become the disciple of such a figure, I wonder what the treatment would be like?" Ye Chen lightly shook his head, putting away the black token. He then began to take stock of the remaining heaven and earth spirit treasures—these naturally grown items were no less valuable than divine artifacts!

"Young Longevity Grass: Ingest one stalk to increase lifespan by 100,000 years! It can also temper bone and sinew, fundamentally strengthening the physique."

"Young Dry-Eye Flower: Ingest one stalk to increase vision tenfold!"

"Young Myriad-Flower Lotus: Ingest one stalk to increase body suppleness tenfold!"

A series of precious medicinal herbs, rarely seen outside, were laid out before Ye Chen, dazzling to the eye. The value of each one could not be matched by an entire set of Pseudo-God gear!

"Young Longevity Grass, it can actually increase lifespan by 100,000 years? If it were mature, I wonder how much it would add? This kind of thing could only originate from the Ancient World. If it appeared on Earth, it would terrify scientists to death."

Ye Chen marveled inwardly. The value of the Young Longevity Grass was immense, comparable to a God-Transformation Pill! One must remember that an ordinary Pseudo-God expert only possessed a lifespan of 100,000 years!

When the great limit arrived, some remained perpetually at the peak of the Pseudo-God realm, ultimately dying of old age, their hundred thousand years of cultivation turning to dust and bones.

If one possessed a stalk of Young Longevity Grass at that juncture, adding another hundred thousand years, doubling their time, that person would almost certainly break through to the Deity realm!

Ye Chen pondered for a moment, glancing at the six stalks of Young Longevity Grass present. After a brief hesitation, he raised his hand, summoning a dense surge of power that enveloped one stalk, crushing it and melting it into pure energy, which he then swallowed in one gulp.

A fresh power surged through every pore, as if his meridians and blood were boiling. Ye Chen could feel the flesh, cells, and genes within him dividing, replenishing, becoming more potent, saturated with boundless vitality.

After a while, Ye Chen opened his eyes. Feeling the rekindled life force within him, he couldn't help but sigh. Previously, he had always felt the approach of his limit, the sensation of aging and death lurking at any moment. Now, he felt vibrant and full of vigor, his fists and kicks imbued with greater power.

Ye Chen kept the remaining five stalks of Young Longevity Grass, intending to save them for his sister, Bai Long, and the others. Given their talent, they might not even need such things. Regardless, for him, increased lifespan only served to enhance combat capability, and it was not too late to use them when necessary.

Ye Chen collected the rest of the precious medicinal herbs, ready to sell them together when he returned to the city, converting them into True God Stones to fuel the spaceship, and securing enough funds to travel to the Bright Empire!

Continuing his inventory, Ye Chen discovered some pills in the treasure chamber as well, all precious concoctions. Among them, one specific medicine caused his gaze to fixate.

"God-Transformation Pill!"

Ye Chen looked at a pill, golden and lustrous, resting in an exquisitely carved brocade box. It was thumb-sized, emanating a rich medicinal fragrance that caused every pore on his body to open, creating an intense urge to consume it.

Ye Chen took one look and immediately closed the box, preventing the medicinal scent from leaking. This pill was specifically designed for Pseudo-God experts breaking through to the Deity realm. If he swallowed it now, he would most likely explode and die.

The brocade box containing the medicine was itself a treasure crafted from Pseudo-God materials; it would be extremely difficult to break without a high-level Pseudo-God cultivation.

Ye Chen glanced at it twice before carefully securing it. He then turned to the green-talisman old man: "Leave Tianwu Mountain. Return to the city!"

"Yes!" The green-talisman old man chuckled, controlling the rune spaceship and speeding out of Tianwu Mountain.

Ye Chen looked at Kaba: "In which direction of Tianzhou City are the people from the Spiritual Civilization located?"

Kaba pondered: "When I left, they were mining in a quarry governed by the Bell family, on the eastern side of Tianzhou City."

Ye Chen frowned slightly, nodding internally.

Soon, the rune spaceship followed its previous trajectory, carefully rushing out of Tianwu Mountain. It bumped and swayed along the way but managed to avoid the most perilous areas, finally reaching the outside of Tianwu Mountain.

Looking from afar, mist shrouded the peaks, and stone gates stood tall. Outside these gates was a vast expanse of yellow sand, and at the distant horizon, faint traces of structures hinted at Tianzhou City.

Whoosh~

The rune spaceship shot out.

Outside Tianwu Mountain, numerous figures approached the entrance in the distance; ship after ship sped inward. Upon seeing the rune spaceship, some were curious, while others sneered or dismissed it with disdain.

The rune spaceship quickly arrived just outside Tianwu Mountain.

The moment the spaceship broke free from Tianwu Mountain's special gravitational magnetic field and could accelerate, the sky outside suddenly solidified, and the entire world fell silent.

The rapidly accelerating rune spaceship was frozen solid.

Ye Chen and the others inside the vessel felt a heavy pressure, as if sinking into a viscous fluid, their limbs weighed down by thousands of tons of stone, making even standing feel exhausting.

"What's happening!" Kaba exclaimed in shock.

Ye Chen’s gaze sharpened as he looked toward the front of the spaceship. Ripples spread through the air, and a figure slowly emerged. This figure had been hidden within a spatial rift. As he stepped out, he seemed partly ethereal and partly concrete, as if traversing the boundary between illusion and reality—this was a God!

"This is bad!" the green-talisman old man cried out: "He's a Middle-Tier Deity! His law power is too strong; the spaceship can't stop him!"

Ye Chen's expression flickered. Even separated by the hull of the rune spaceship, this person could affect the space within it. His power was clearly superior to the City Lord of Bingshui City!

He suddenly flipped his hand and took out that emerald-green jade disk—the triple-replica Universe Disc. It erupted with a dense green light that bathed Ye Chen’s arm and clothes in green. A vast energy radiated outward, centering on it, quickly penetrating the rune spaceship and interfacing with the external spacetime.

Ye Chen felt his entire consciousness merge with the replica Universe Disc. He could clearly sense the surrounding spacetime, similar to the Heavenly Beast Mode, but unlike that mode where his body could integrate and traverse space freely, this artifact allowed him to perceive space as if it were his own arm—he could accelerate, decelerate, and seemingly control the flow of time!

However, altering the flow of time required an immense expenditure of energy.

"Is this the technique of a deity?" Ye Chen felt a wave of shock. In truth, he didn't know that ordinary domain-type artifacts couldn't control the flow of time; they could only solidify or manipulate space. Only a few domain-type divine artifacts could affect temporal velocity.

At this moment, the moment the spacetime domain of the replica Universe Disc manifested, it enveloped a radius of 100 kilometers centered on Ye Chen’s body, creating a distant standoff against the opponent's domain. However, through sensing, Ye Chen realized that the replica Universe Disc was ultimately only a low-tier domain artifact, and it felt somewhat suppressed when facing that figure.

But once the replica Universe Disc was activated, the domain within the rune spaceship returned to normal, and the entire ship strained to its maximum power, managing a slow, arduous movement.

"Hmm?" The figure was a tall, imposing middle-aged man, with sharp sword-like brows and eyes like carved stars, his face chiseled. Sensing the energy of the spacetime domain, he couldn't help but show surprise. "A domain-type divine artifact?"

He peered closely at the spaceship, muttering to himself, "The appearance is correct; the young master said it would look like this. Strange, wasn't this spaceship supposed to belong to a Semi-God, and one without any background? But he must have stumbled upon some great fortune in the wilderness to acquire a low-tier divine artifact spaceship."

"How does this person possess a domain-type divine artifact?"

"If he had this artifact, he could have crushed the young master back then; even with the young master wearing Middle-Tier Deity armor, he could have been bound and kidnapped."

"Oh..." He concluded, "He must have obtained it from within Tianwu Mountain." The man analyzed the situation, his eyes suddenly lighting up with a trace of fanaticism as he stared at the rune spaceship. "The young master's files did not mention this person possessing a domain-type divine artifact. If I could acquire this thing... a low-tier domain artifact would offer a tremendous boost to my strength. If it were a Middle-Tier domain artifact, it would drive me to madness."

As these thoughts spun in his mind, the rune spaceship suddenly did not flee outward but retracted sharply, retreating back into Tianwu Mountain.

Ye Chen hadn't ventured far from the entrance; with this sudden maneuver, he quickly slipped back inside Tianwu Mountain.

Upon re-entering Tianwu Mountain, Ye Chen distinctly felt the domain energy of the replica Universe Disc compress from a 100-kilometer range down to just one kilometer. Simultaneously, the control of the divine man's domain automatically vanished, repelled by the inherent properties of Tianwu Mountain itself.

"What!" The divine man froze momentarily.

A moment later, he regained his senses, his entire being consumed by rage. "Damn it! If I had known he had a domain-type divine artifact, I should have waited until he was farther away to reveal myself! Curse it, now that he has retreated inside and won't come out, we must wait for Tianwu Mountain to close in a month! By then, the young master will certainly notice him, and the secret will be exposed!"

"Damn creature! If I can't have it, I'll ensure you die without a burial place!" The divine man clenched his fist, fury burning in his eyes.