After encountering the Godrace, Fang Han no longer had the mood to track down the legions of Outer Heavenly Demons. Instead, he let the Five-Prisons King Cauldron drift slowly across the icy wastes of the Northern Ocean, its hull scraping against blizzards and razor-sharp astral winds, while he continued his rapid mental exchange with Yan.
"Yan, what do you think? Should I keep these gods for myself and refine them into pills, or should I hand them over to the sect?"
The two captured Godrace beings had already been thrown into the Yellow Springs Diagram, suppressed but far from destroyed. Even the sacred waters of the Yellow Springs couldn't corrode the "divine force" clinging to their flesh. It was clearer than ever that these creatures truly were the apex of creation—born rulers who once dominated immortals, demons, and beasts alike.
Fang Han had hoped to study that divine force—to see what kind of qi it truly was—but Yan immediately splashed him with cold water:
"The divine force of the Godrace is unique. No living being can cultivate it—not demons, not immortals, not even someone like you. It's why the Yellow Springs Water can't erode them. What truly matters is their flesh—perfect material for refining longevity pills. But you don't need more lifespan right now. Better to hand them to the Feather Gate. The reward will be substantial."
Longevity pills—those were the most precious of all. Not power-boosting pills, not those that strengthened the body. Lifespan was everything. With enough years, any cultivation bottleneck could be broken through. Without lifespan, even heaven-defying talent was useless.
The Godrace were born immortal. Their flesh was a perfect longevity elixir. But Fang Han had no need of it. He had already consumed the Nine-Apertures Golden Core—one of Yellow Springs Gate's top heavenly-grade pills—granting him hundreds of years of extra life even without reaching the Heaven-Human Realm.
"Fine. If there's nothing worthwhile to extract, I'll hand them over to the sect as a contribution. But they must have some treasures on them, right? Let's loot them first."
Yan snorted. "I have to completely refine their bodies. The Godrace store their treasures inside their heads. Their brains contain a pocket-space—a personal void like a treasure pouch. The older a Godrace is, the larger that void becomes. Ancient ones could swallow entire stars. Extremely powerful ones carried their own internal worlds. But these two are newborns. Their power is weak; they won't have anything good."
As Yan wrapped the two captives with the Yellow Springs Water, slowly trying to erase their will, Fang Han felt another stab of awe at this terrifying species.
A race born with its own internal void… No wonder the three Daoist paths had once united to eradicate every last one.
When the world itself rebels against your existence—that says everything.
"How did the immortals, demons, and monster clans defeat them back then?" Fang Han asked.
"I wasn't born yet. Everything I know is legend," Yan replied. "But the world is moving again. Something stirs. You should be prepared—the great calamity might return."
Fang Han exhaled. "Then let's go kill some Heavenly Demons."
He'd already made up his mind. The Godrace corpses would be handed over to the Feather Gate. This wasn't something he could handle alone. The sooner his sect knew, the better prepared they'd be for whatever storm was coming.
And catastrophe was always an opportunity.
The Five-Prisons King Cauldron descended, following Long Xuan's directions. The air grew colder still; mountains of crystal ice rose like jagged spears. Some peaks reached several hundred meters high, glittering beneath the dim light.
Then—Fang Han felt it. A surge of powerful demonic qi.
Ahead, on the ice, yawned a massive black pit—so dark it seemed to swallow light itself. It wasn't ocean water. It was a void.
A hole punched through the world.
This was a Return-to-Void Passage—a tunnel linking realms, typically created during ancient wars between immortals, demons, or the Godrace themselves.
"When I entered five years ago, it wasn't particularly dangerous," Long Xuan said. "We can go deeper."
At her word, Fang Han steered the cauldron into the black abyss.
The world twisted violently. Even the cauldron warped as if dragged across dimensions. And then—
Light.
The cauldron burst into a new world—gray, barren, suffocating.
No plants. No sky. Only a choking fog and endless, rotting swamps.
Huge bubbles rose from the boggy surface—swelling, trembling, then exploding in wet bursts. Every bubble released more gray vapor that twisted and writhed until it briefly formed demonic faces.
Raspy shrieks echoed:
Gaaahhhh!
Jijijiji…!
Heavenly Demons—dozens, hundreds—crawled in and out of the swamp, feasting on the vapor released by the bubbles.
Above, the sky was riddled with black holes. Stars glimmered faintly beyond. Fang Han realized he had fallen from one of those voids.
Every few moments, a Heavenly Demon would fly out of a black hole dragging some unfortunate creature, then toss it into the swamp.
Splash!
A demon hurled a massive shark into the mire. Instantly, the swamp swallowed it whole. A giant bubble swelled, burst, and sprayed blood-red vapor into the air. The surrounding demons pounced, absorbing it greedily. Their bodies visibly strengthened.
Long Xuan's voice trembled with both awe and caution.
"This swamp is the Flesh Mire—a bog formed from the blood and flesh of countless slaughtered beings. Demon Kings rule at the far end. I once made it there, and barely escaped with my life."
She pointed into the distance where ancient, crumbling fortresses faintly glowed through the fog.
"This star is outside our world but connected by the Return-to-Void Passage. Heavenly Demons use it as a staging ground. They hunt living beings, drag them here, and feed them to the mire for pure blood-essence. Many Daoist disciples come here to temper themselves. We may even meet allies."
Fang Han narrowed his eyes.
"A perfect place," he said.
With a sweep of his sleeve, the swallowing formation in the cauldron roared to life.
Dozens of Heavenly Demons shrieked as they were sucked into the Five-Prisons King Cauldron in a single breath.