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The giant condor's territory

Ye Zichen sat on the ground, the waves of heat billowing from him melting the accumulated snow.

The avian beasts all gathered together, the condor relentlessly trying to calm them.

From time to time, it looked at Gu Luolin, as if asking just how long they'd have to wait before Ye Zichen dispersed the flames.

Time flew by, disappearing in a flash.

No one knew how long this baptism of thunder and flame lasted, but immersed in his enlightenment, Ye Zichen could clearly sense his comprehension of the Grand Dao of the Five Elements becoming clearer.

Suddenly, he opened his eyes.

Real flames blazed in his pupils. The darkness didn't affect his line of vision at all.

"I didn't expect that mastering fire would improve my Fiery Eyes of Truth, too." Ye Zichen couldn't help but laugh and shake his head. So Old Lord Taishang really had refined the Great Sage's eyes with fire: improving mastery of the Fiery Eyes of truth indeed required a blaze.

Ye Zichen then noticed the condors huddling together. When he saw how afraid they were, he dispersed the heavenly flames and lightning.

In a flash, daylight returned to the mountains. Everything was as it had been before.

"Scree!"

"Scree!"

"Scree!"

The avian beasts cried out. The giant condor stood at the front of its flock, and it too called out. The other birds went off to attend to their own affairs, but before they left, all of them paused and glanced at Ye Zichen.

Not long after, Gu Luolin hurtled through the air and landed beside Ye Zichen. "Not bad! You made such progress in your dao in such a short amount of time!"

She complimented him, putting on the airs of an elder. At the same time, she stretched out her hand and patted him comfortingly on the shoulder.

But because of the height difference, when she patted his shoulder, she had to stand on her tippy-toes. It was adorable.

Ye Zichen took out his phone to check the time. He hadn't guessed he'd only needed three days to reach full mastery over fire, thunder, and lightning.

Such a terrifying rate of improvement left him a little stunned. He reached up and gently took off his crown.

He stared at it intently for quite some time!

It really was a priceless treasure, and it seemed as if it had been for him.

If not for the fact that transcendent good fortune was still waiting for him up ahead, or that he had far too many competitors out there, he might have seized this chance to keep pushing, master wind, and condense his dao heart in one fell swoop.

But then, it was strange: in theory, when you mastered any one of the five elements, you should have been able to condense its dao heart.

When Ye Zichen first mastered rain, he hadn't seen any such dao heart.

Now that he'd checked fire, thunder, and lightning of his list, he still saw no dao hearts.

"It seems I need to master all give elements before I can condense the Grand Dao of the Five Element's dao heart," Ye Zichen muttered to himself. He brushed his hand through the air.

Of heaven and earth's five elements, he possessed an enormous affinity for all of them save wind.

The instant he stretched out his hand, he felt the elemental essence in the air rejoice and gather around it.

This meant that, when he called upon them, he could manipulate the elements with greater mastery.

But actually, upon awakening, Ye Zichen felt as if he'd gone down the wrong path. He looked up at the palace atop the mountain and thought that things would be so much simpler if only he could fly up there. Since he couldn't, he'd have to walk up the mountainous path.

During his enlightenment, he should have focused on wind. If his comprehension of wind reached perfection, he could create wings.

But when he thought about it harder, he decided he'd done the right thing after all. Understanding and opportunities were things you ran into by chance; pushing wouldn't help.

During his enlightenment just now, he was immersed deeper in contemplation of fire, thunder, and lightning. If he waited here, fussing over the dao of wind until he could create wings while ignoring the easier-to-understand fire, thunder, and lightning, it would be counterproductive.

Although he couldn't yet form wings of wind, he ought to be happy having mastered three of the five elements.

But what did seem like an awful pity was that, while he'd undergone a qualitative leap in his understanding of the dao of heaven and earth, his cultivation hadn't changed. He was still just an early-stage ruler, and his domain had yet to expand much. Taking his comprehensive strength into account, he was at most at the level of a divine general.

'Hey! Don't lose yourself in that again, okay?" When she saw Ye Zichen staring at his own hand, Gu Luolin couldn't help but purse her lips.

"I couldn't help myself." Ye Zichen smiled and lowered his hand, then turned to her and said with sincere gratitude, "I was only able to make such progress thanks to your willingness to part with this treasure. Thank you."

"Don't be so polite! You're my nephew, aren't you? Seniors ought to take care of their juniors!"

"…." Despite himself, Ye Zichen's expression darkened. Hearing her call him his nephew really felt off.

But he didn't argue about seniority. He was clear that she really cared about this particular matter, and if he tried arguing, he'd never hear the end of it.

Besides, she was still little, so Ye Zichen generously decided to humor her.

"Have there been any other invaders?" he asked.

"Invaders? What nonsense is this?" Gu Luolin sneered. "Do you have any idea how big a commotion you caused? Thunder and lightning rained from the heavens, and the entire sky went black. Who would dare act recklessly? Invaders? I'm afraid the others present could only stand there watching and quivering."

Ye Zichen grimaced. He naturally how no idea how big a scene his enlightenment had caused.

It was similar to when he'd first mastered rain; the resulting downpour of auspicious rain was entirely out of his control. He'd simply visualized it within his sea of consciousness. The rain had appeared outside essentially on its own.

The thunder and flames Gu Luolin referred to had likely appeared much the same way, descending during his enlightenment.

"Glad to hear no one else showed up. The condor's clan already suffered heavy losses, and the injured have yet to fully heal. If anyone else showed up…"

"So what if they showed up?" Gu Luolin put her hands on her his disdainfully.

Ye Zichen instantly swallowed the rest of his sentence.

She was right. So what if more invaders showed up?

With this little princess here, even Kui Lin was so restrained, he didn't even dare breathe too hard. He just turned and fled, not even daring to argue. If anyone else came, even imperial kings would be nothing but small fry. They'd likely be too scared to even stand up straight.

"Heh, they couldn't do anything. With you here, who'd dare cause trouble?" laughed Ye Zichen.

"Hmph!" Gu Luolin proudly raised her little head, but in truth, she was inwardly displeased.

Young as she was, she knew that those people weren't afraid of her, they were afraid of her parents and grandfather. Without her family's protection, other experts wouldn't take her seriously at all.

Her whole life, her family's three half-step transcendents had protected her. She'd always longed for the day she could rely on herself, for the day that others would look at her and not her family. That was why she was in such a hurry to grow up, and why, after meeting Ye Zichen, she was so insistent about being his senior.

All of this was symbolic of her longing for independence.

Everything slowed to a halt as Gu Luolin thought about what she'd do once she was grown and Ye Zichen calculated how to convince her or the condor to deliver him to the palace.

Whatever else might happen, the fortune waiting for him there would be his greatest lucky chance yet.

The two looked at each other but said nothing. The silence made the eerie howling of the mountain winds even clearer.

"Just now, I seem to recall seeing you achieve full comprehension of thunder, lightning, and fire, right?" Gu Luolin suddenly broke the silence.

"That's right."

"So that means the dao you're contemplating is the Grand Dao of the Five Elements?"

Ye Zichen nodded.

"That's pretty good!" Gu Luolin patted him on the shoulder. "Practically no one has dared walk the path of the five elements since the Five Elements Great Emperor fell. You're so young, yet you've already mastered three of the five. You really are my nephew!"

"….." Ye Zichen chose not to argue. "Actually, it's four elements. I've mastered rain, too."

"Isn't that even better? You really are my nephew!"

By letting her call him "nephew", he felt as if he really had become her junior. But Ye Zichen had never really admitted that. He just thought that she was rather silly when it came to familiar relationships and seniority. Listening to her felt strange, but he couldn't bring himself to correct her.

Suddenly, the atmosphere cooled down.

Although their conversation had been rather awkward, his thoughts were elsewhere. Ever since waking up, all he wanted was to fly to the palace as quickly as possible.

It was clearly too late to just walk there; who knew how many had entered the palace while he was immersed in his enlightenment? If he started walking now, who knew how many beasts he'd encounter along the way, or how much time he'd waste tangling with them?

By the time he arrived, it was entirely possible that someone else would've run off with his fortune already.

It seemed the only way to turn this around and get there first was to fly, and his only hope of flying was Gu Luolin and the condor.

"…." Ye Zichen glanced at Gu Luolin, but he didn't know quite how to bridge the question.

"Do you want to ask me and Big White to carry you?" Gu Luolin shook her head like an elf or fairy, then rushed up to Ye Zichen and giggled.

"You can even tell that?"

"You've been glancing at the palace this whole time. I'd have to be really dumb to miss it," she said. "If you want something, just go right ahead and ask. While you were contemplating the dao, Big White and I already talked it over. We both agreed to carry you, but then you kept on beating around the bush, so I figured you weren't in a hurry and chose not to bring it up."

"Of course I'm in a hurry! Why wouldn't I be?" Ye Zichen cried out urgently.

If someone took his rightful fortune, well, that was one thing. But what if Kui Lin got his hands on it? How would they live on then? They wouldn't even need to wait for the era-ending giant beasts to attack; Kui Lin would pluck the thorns from his side before the beasts got the chance!