The Elder of Creation, in his pursuit of collecting corpses, had massacred countless innocents, thus incurring the wrath of many. Now, the Nine-Headed Serpent had drawn a host of formidable enemies, cornering him in his hiding place.
However, the Elder of Creation was a ruthless individual. At that moment, he unleashed the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops from the Creation Jade Disk.
With Xiao Fei leading the vast army to hold off the powerful enemies for a few brief breaths, he successfully escaped.
The price was the annihilation of hundreds of thousands of troops and Xiao Fei's clone, all reduced to dust in mere moments.
At the last critical juncture, witnessing the obliteration of the massive army and his own solitary existence, Xiao Fei knew survival was impossible.
He made a decisive move, opting for self-detonation.
Yet, before his self-destruction, he managed to leave a small token for the group who had journeyed so arduously.
Upon seeing Xiao Fei's self-detonation leave nothing but an empty space, with the Elder of Creation having fled and nothing left behind, the assembled experts could only exchange bewildered glances.
The Nine-Headed Serpent, with its multiple heads and over a dozen eyes, suddenly flicked its tail through the void.
Coiled around its tail tip was a crystalline, translucent object.
The others, drawn by the Nine-Headed Serpent's unusual reaction, turned their gazes towards it.
"What is this?"
"Such a profound aura of the Great Dao!"
All eyes converged on the small, crystalline item, with a hint of envy in their gazes.
They had all come together, yet everyone else returned empty-handed, having gained nothing, while this one had found a piece of stone.
"Fellow Daoist Nine-Headed Serpent, might I have a closer look?"
An elder among the human race, his gaze fixed on the crystal-like object, pondered deeply.
"By all means."
The Nine-Headed Serpent was generous, flicking its tail and sending the item towards the elder.
"Fellow Daoist Xing Yue, do you recognize this?"
"This old man dares not make a hasty conclusion; I must examine it further."
The elder, addressed as Xing Yue, received the small item and meticulously probed it with his divine sense.
After a moment, Xing Yue's breathing became noticeably rapid.
"If this old man's eyes do not deceive him, this object should be a small branch from the Great Dao Tree."
"Ah! Is it true?"
"It is actually the legendary Great Dao Tree!"
"It is said that this object has existed in the Immortal Realm since the creation of the heavens and earth, and there has always been only one in the entire Immortal Realm at any given time."
"The Immortal Realm has long lost any trace of the Great Dao Tree, which suggests that the Elder of Creation must possess information about the Creation Tree."
"No wonder the Elder of Creation slaughtered so many fellow cultivators; the Great Dao Tree must be in his possession."
The group, initially seeking revenge against the Elder of Creation, became even more agitated upon discovering the news of the Great Dao Tree.
While their desire for vengeance remained undiminished, the mere prospect of obtaining the Great Dao Tree represented immense profit.
The combination of hatred and the allure of gain sealed their fate: from this moment on, they would be locked in an irreconcilable conflict with the Elder of Creation.
"Hmph! My hatred for the Elder of Creation runs as deep as the sea; I shall hunt him to the ends of the earth in this lifetime!"
"Hunt down the Elder of Creation for revenge! Until death do us part!"
"The Elder of Creation killed my brother, disgraced my wife and daughters, and did not even spare my ox that I raised for 100,000 years! This is an irreconcilable feud!"
Though each harbored their own ulterior motives, the slogans they shouted were primarily focused on revenge.
After all, openly proclaiming a desire for murder and plunder would not sound good.
...
Having narrowly escaped by sacrificing hundreds of thousands of lives, the Elder of Creation continued his flight.
However, the pursuing enemies were like persistent maggots, impossible to shake off.
With no other recourse, the Elder of Creation was forced to live in constant hiding, perpetually on the run.
He had no time to refine and absorb the numerous Enlightenment Fruits within the Creation Jade Disk.
As for hiding within the Creation Jade Disk itself, it offered little use to cultivators of their caliber.
Others could still track their aura and extract them along with the Creation Jade Disk.
There was also a small secret that only he knew.
Although he was known to the outside world as the Elder of Creation, the Creation Jade Disk was not a treasure he had personally forged but one he had stumbled upon by chance.
If he were to enter the Creation Jade Disk, over time, his divine soul might be fused with the Creation Jade Disk, transforming him into the next artifact spirit.
Don't ask how he knew; he had experienced it firsthand.
The last time he entered the Creation Jade Disk and utilized its 365-times temporal acceleration for cultivation, upon emerging from his seclusion, he discovered he had become the artifact spirit.
Fortunately, his submersion was not too deep, and with immense effort, he managed to shatter the Creation Jade Disk and escape.
It turned out that anyone entering the Creation Jade Disk, provided they were the most powerful, would be actively fused by the treasure to become its artifact spirit.
He had spent years of effort and energy to repair and perfect the Creation Jade Disk.
Originally, he was a renowned young prodigy within a radius of hundreds of thousands of miles.
However, in order to escape the Creation Jade Disk and subsequently repair it, he had become hunched over, his raven hair turning white.
He couldn't endure such a trial a second time!
When pursued by powerful enemies, he naturally shifted the pressure onto Xiao Fei and the others within the Creation Jade Disk.
This plunged Xiao Fei and the others into misery.
The first batch of one million elite soldiers trained had all perished.
Fortunately, Xiao Fei had made preparations and had many talents in reserve, immediately organizing another army of hundreds of thousands.
However, this army of several hundred thousand had barely settled in before they too were wiped out.
In the eyes of the Elder of Creation, the lives of those within the Creation Jade Disk were less than ants, mere consumables.
With the trained armies decimated, he could only continue to seize people from the space to serve as cannon fodder.
People from within the Creation Jade Disk were drawn out in batches, then sent to the battlefield to die as cannon fodder.
If he continued to consume them at this rate, even if everyone within the Creation Jade Disk desperately reproduced, they could not keep up with the consumption.
But these were living, breathing people with thoughts and feelings; who would willingly submit to such a fate?
Who would admit that they were cannon fodder, that they were born to be consumables?
Initially, some ideological persuasion could still trick a portion of people into becoming soldier fodder.
But as those around them died one by one, everyone began to understand, and no one was willing to join the army anymore, leading to forced conscription.
These messy affairs required a vast amount of time and energy.
To allow Xiao Fei to cultivate with peace of mind and comprehend the Great Dao, Huang Feifei took on all these troublesome matters.
She, a mere frail woman, bore all the pressure within the world of the Creation Jade Disk.
On one hand, she assisted a clone of Xiao Fei in dealing with the Elder of Creation's unreasonable demands.
On the other hand, internally, she had to manage various troubles and a mountain of unfinished business.
Originally, Huang Feifei was highly respected within the space, always referred to as the Saintess by all beings.
However, due to her current role in helping Xiao Fei conscript men and send them to their deaths on the battlefield, everyone within the Creation Jade Disk had long been filled with resentment.
They had cursed her in secret countless times, calling her an old witch.