Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao

Ling Han put this strange Dragon Crystal away, and they continued forwards.

He could study it slowly, and there was no need to rush things now.

Four hours later, they encountered another fierce beast, but its strength was much lower. After they killed it, they very naturally obtained another Dragon Crystal. However, this was a very "normal" Dragon Crystal, and there were no strange patterns on it.

"Could it be that only stronger creatures would produce this kind of patterned Dragon Crystal?" They guessed.

This was very easily verified because they encountered a colossal creature not too long after. This was a massive tortoise, and it was slowly crawling in the mountains. However, every step of its feet would cause the mountains and earth to shake, creating an astonishing commotion.

Boom!

This massive tortoise immediately discovered Ling Han and his group, and immediately placed down a clawed leg. It was like a mountain peak had descended, causing the winds to whistle sharply, and there was a yellow-colored seal glowing beneath its claws.

If this seal had not been there, Ling Han and his group could've chosen not to dodge, and just allowed it to land on them.

No matter how great its power was, it would be useless as it could not harm them at all. At most, they would only be buried into the ground, or simply create a hole in its own foot, as if Ling Han and his group were nails.

In front of Regulations, pure power was like pure paste, completely meaningless.

Thus, all Celestials had to cultivate Regulations.

It was a different story when power had been fused with Regulations. That would create a frightening impact. With the support of Regulations, power would also unleash the destructive force that it should have.

Ling Han shouted, and raised a fist to parry.

Boom, a loud bang rang out, and the tortoise's foot landed. Nothing could block its course.

When the tortoise's foot rose again, Ling Han and his party were all embedded in the ground, but all of them were completely unwounded.

This was because Ling Han had stretched out a shield of Origin Power, which had canceled out the impact caused by this stomp from the giant tortoise. Otherwise, aside from Ling Han, the other three women would be throwing up blood. In the case of Bewitching Maiden Rou who was too weak, it was not impossible that she would be directly stomped into mush, either.

Boom, the giant tortoise's foot had just risen when it was again descending at a frighteningly rapid speed. It was clearly going to stomp repeatedly, and stomp Ling Han and his group into bits.

"Who asked you to be arrogant!" Ling Han summoned the Divine Demon Sword. Man and sword fused as one, and shot into the skies.

Pu!

A spurt of blood sprayed out, and Ling Han forcefully ripped open the giant tortoise's tough hide, penetrating through the sole of its foot. The Divine Demon Sword unleashed a blazing light, continuing to slash towards the giant tortoise's head.

The giant tortoise released a pained roar.

With its size, this stab wound from Ling Han was actually no different from being pricked by a needle. It would naturally hurt, but it would only be a momentary pain. But who asked it to have been created by the Divine Demon Sword? This was a future Celestial Tool, so how overbearing would its destructive force be?

At this moment, the murderous aura was wreaking havoc inside the giant tortoise's body. As it surged, the adjacent part of blood and flesh would immediately lose vitality, and turn into a mound of dead flesh.

Fortunately, the giant tortoise was big enough, and could lay down layer after layer of defenses in its body, so the murderous aura left behind by the Divine Demon Sword was continuously weakened, and ultimately disappeared. However, it had already turned one-third of the giant tortoise's physical body into rotting flesh, showing adequately how terrifying the Divine Demon Sword could be.

Ling Han wielded his sword and slashed over. Shua, shua, shua, the Divine Demon Sword danced madly.

This giant tortoise was huge, and had terrifying power. If it had been any other person that had encountered it, they would have been really unfortunate. But if it was Ling Han, it would be this giant tortoise that was down on its luck. Its massive body had instead become a very clear target. No matter how Ling Han brandished his sword, he would be able to succeed, so this big guy was soon sprawled out on the ground, turning into a dead tortoise.

Cracking its head open, they found a dirt yellow Dragon Crystal. Upon closer examination, it was covered with patterns.

This was another special Dragon Crystal.

"The patterns are different," Ling Han said after studying it for a while.

The three women all nodded. Though the patterns were complex, and an ordinary person would become dizzy from the sight, this group would be able to completely memorize every single detail of the veined pattern—these weren't seals of great dao that would be slowly erased from their memory by the heaven and earth after a single glance.

"Who cares! Let's go!" Hu Niu said casually.

Indeed, they could not distinguish anything, so their only option was to continue forwards.

As they headed towards that Divine Dragon Mountain, they killed many more wild beasts on their way. Some gave them ordinary Dragon Crystals, while others produced special Dragon Crystals.

All in all, they obtained a lot of normal Dragon Crystals, about 10 times the number of special Dragon Crystals.

After spending a full month, they were finally close to approaching that Divine Dragon Mountain, but their path forwards had disappeared, and they could only stop and stand there.

There was no further path, as a massive river had blocked their advance.

The river flow was extraordinarily wide. At least, it was not something that anyone could cross with a single leap.

Then cross the bridge in a vessel?

Ling Han tried to take out the wooden ship stored in the Black Tower, but the moment he tossed it into the river, it was completely corroded. There were multiple seals of great dao surging in the river waters, and it was these seals of great dao that easily destroyed the wooden ship.

The wooden ship could not survive, and neither could a metal one. Nothing could hold up against the corrosive abilities of the river waters.

Perhaps Divine Metal could, but who would use Divine Metal to build a ship. Wasn't that a massive waste?

"Let's walk around. Perhaps there is a bridge, or perhaps we would reach the source."

They walked along the great river, and passed a great many people on their way. They also encountered a considerable number of people that had walked over from the opposite direction, and this gave Ling Han and his group a sense of foreboding.

Perhaps this river flowed in a circle around the entire Divine Dragon Mountain. In that case, they could not possibly walk to the source no matter how much they walked.

But without walking a whole round, who would give up?

This round was astonishingly huge, and they had walked for a total of 17 days before Ling Han and his party finally returned to where they had originally come from.

As expected, the great river was closed, and no path was left.

How were they supposed to cross the river then?

'Wait, no!'

Ling Han suddenly recalled that he had indeed seen many peple as he walked along the great river, but there was also a great many people that he had not seen, like those few super monarch tiers. In fact, he had not encountered Du Shaojun, Long Butian, and the others, either.

Could it be that these people had been walking ahead of them all this while, and that was why they had not met them all this while?

"Let's walk another round."

This time, Ling Han and his party chose to walk a round in the opposite direction.

True enough, there were a great many people that had been advancing in the same direction as Ling Han and his group previously, and that was why they had not met. However, now that they had circled around in the opposite direction, they had spotted them, but Tian Qingyue, Yu Huaqing, and the others were still not to be seen.

"There must be a path that leads to Divine Dragon Mountain here. Thus, those people have all gone to a different location, and have not come here to waste time," Ling Han concluded.

But where would the other pathway be?

With a thought from Ling Han, he drew out those special Dragon Crystals, and examined them closely once more.

"When these veined patterns are put together, isn't it a map?" His mind suddenly buzzed with an idea.

"Map? What map?" Bewitching Maiden Rou asked, just trying to strike up a conversation.

"Everyone speaks of wanting to ascend Divine Dragon Mountain, but with the great river blocking the way, there is no way to advance at all. Perhaps there is an underground passage that can let us cross the river?" Ling Han asked.

"Then we'll dig our own!" Hu Niu was energized now. In her eyes, this was something very fun.

The little girl was the type to do as she said. However, she had only dug downwards a little when the river waters flowed out. If it were not for the fact that Ling Han had moved fast enough, and grabbed the little girl, whom he quickly tossed to one side, she would probably have been corroded by the river waters.