Since it was armor made of Heaven's Primordial Qi, the best way to break it was also with Heaven's Primordial Qi. The Hongmeng Gem grunted assent and went back to dozing.
Lin Moyu drew out a wisp of Heaven's Primordial Qi, used his soul-flame as the carrier, and continued refining the Hidden Spirit Pearl. Sure enough—the invisible armor that had been unbreakable before, that even the Heaven and Earth Jellyfish couldn't dissolve—now began to loosen. He could feel the shell protecting the Pearl's core softening—not by violent destruction, but slowly yielding—until his soul-flame could truly enter the core.
It was slow work, but Lin had patience. He gradually increased the dose of Primordial Qi, speeding the refinement. Bit by bit he contacted the core and pressed the refining deeper. The Hidden Spirit Pearl had never birthed intelligence; its core felt pure, singular. Lin gained an insight from it: his own soul should remain pure. He realized his path had been right—casting off many Daos and retaining only the Undying Dao. Make one path absolute, and that is enough.
Using the Pearl as a mirror, he guided more Heaven's Primordial Qi—not to help the refinement, but to remodel his Soul World. The Soul World is his true core; with Primordial Qi as the medium, he forged a layer of armor for it. He hadn't dared this before—too much Primordial Qi might draw the Dao's notice. Now, with the Hidden Spirit Pearl in hand, he could act boldly. Primordial Qi is powerful and versatile; with its protection, his Soul World would become far sturdier and far less easily threatened. Strengthen the Soul World, and the soul is safe; secure the soul, and your life-preserving power rises.
After more than ten years, the Hidden Spirit Pearl was fully refined. Lin's mood soared. Not only had he succeeded, he'd profited greatly: an invisible cuirass now sheathed his Soul World. By Little Tree's estimate, its defense had increased dozens of times, and would continue to grow as the armor evolved.
The Pearl sank entirely into his Soul World; an unseen aura spread—not only cloaking Lin himself, but entirely shrouding Xiaopeng, Little Tree, and the others. Even they felt as if they'd been cut off from the Chaos Ancient Wilderness. The Pearl's veil extended further, blanketing all the Undead Thralls as well. Their auras were masked—though unlike Lin, they wouldn't become visually invisible. The Pearl concealed their presence from sense, but eyes could still see them. That was enough. What Lin most needed to evade was the Dao; so long as it didn't descend in person, he could now slip past it.
He sent more Primordial Qi into Xiaopeng, helping him fully awaken the Golden-Winged Roc bloodline. Little Tree and Chaoszi were much improved; they could now slowly absorb Primordial Qi in earnest and formally begin restoration. Everything proceeded step by step; Lin was in no rush, doing each step solidly.
The ancient Roc blood within Xiaopeng, stirred by Primordial Qi, grew ever more active; his speed climbed, and by multiples. At nine-tenths awakening versus full awakening, his speed differed by at least a factor of ten; battle power, less so. Once his bloodline was fully awakened, Xiaopeng glowed with gold; his aura was little different from a top-tier Perfection expert's. Under the Pearl's shroud, only Lin could sense it—others couldn't even see Xiaopeng.
"How does it feel?" Lin asked calmly from his back.
Xiaopeng let out a long cry—muffled entirely by the Pearl. Excited and elated, he said, "It feels fantastic. Thank you, Father."
"This is your own fortune," Lin smiled. "No need to thank me. How's your current combat power?"
"At least seventy percent of our ancestor's," Xiaopeng said. "I can tangle with those top Perfections. I may not beat a pre-Supreme, but I can certainly escape." Speed's advantage is just that—if you can't win, you can live. At his current pace, a few more years would bring them to the North's grand array. What takes others ten thousand years of flight, Xiaopeng would finish in under a million li of effort.
"Good," Lin said. "There's more Primordial Qi—keep absorbing and refining it. You'll soon reach the Golden-Winged Roc's peak battle power, and maybe surpass the ancestor." That roc had only ever absorbed a small amount of Primordial Qi; Lin now had near-unlimited supply.
Little Tree and Chaoszi had been taking in Primordial Qi all these years. At first their injuries made absorption painfully slow; as they healed, it sped up. Now they'd recovered to about seventy percent of peak—like Xiaopeng. They still couldn't beat a pre-Supreme, but they could match top Perfections. As their wounds mended, their intake quickened; give them a century and they'd be fully restored.
Several years later, they reached their destination: the North's grand array laid by the Calamity Supreme—the last of the Four Poles. From afar Lin saw a blue-robed figure. "Blue robes—the North Pole Supreme. No… only an avatar. The true body should be outside the worldwall."
Even a mere avatar, Lin had no interest in tangling—he was here to refine an array, not to brawl with a Supreme. The avatar hadn't noticed him, sitting quietly in the void. Not far away lay the array, hidden in a spatial seam compressed to a pinpoint; only when activated would it truly show.
Lin flew closer, eyes narrowing. Outside the Calamity Supreme's array entrance, the North's Supreme had added three formations: one kill array and two alarm arrays to trigger on intrusion. He "knew arrays," but not well; to Lin, the three were childishly crude. Lin drew three runes; under the Pearl's veil they slipped in without a ripple. The formations looked unchanged, but had already gone still.
Xiaopeng glided a mere thousand meters past the avatar; the latter felt nothing. Lin relaxed completely. "Enter the array."
To Lin those three formations were nothing. When he opened the Calamity Supreme's array, the sudden bloom and expansion of the grand formation crushed the three add-ons instantly. Before a master's array, the North Supreme's work was a child's game.
The avatar jolted awake, staring at the suddenly activated array—yet seeing no one. He didn't know what had happened. While he was startled, Lin had already entered, headed straight for the core, dropping the Pearl just before stepping in.
"You've finally come. I'm leaving," the statue said—no wasted words. Without waiting for a reply, it opened a time-space channel and departed. The Calamity Supreme's statues were now linked; his wills, intercommunicating.
Lin watched the channel fold shut and vanish. "Can you nail the destination?" he asked.
Little Tree shook his head. "Too short a window to lock a precise location. But I can tell the terminus is very far—and the channel isn't a temporary construct."
"How so?"
"It's long-standing—always there, only 'switched on' when used. There should be a treasure anchoring the far end; Calamity used it to build the channel. I can't pin it, but it's in the Ancient Wilderness—and very deep."
"Got it," Lin nodded. "Also—did you notice he was in a hurry?" This instance of the Calamity Supreme felt different again—pressed, hurried, almost anxious. Little Tree and Chaoszi had sensed it too.
"What's he rushing to do? If he's rushing, something needs doing—something in the deepest wilds," Little Tree said. "And his aura was a bit unstable—maybe connected to whatever's coming out of the Ancient Wilderness's depths."
"Perhaps," Lin said.
Shrouded by the Pearl these decades, they'd been half removed from the world. Who knew where that thing had reached, or how much its influence had grown? It moved from the deepest wilds toward the Chaos, not in any way a normal cultivator could grasp; its speed wasn't great, but its influence had spread across the whole Chaos. If Chaos was affected, the Ancient Wilderness—closer—must be worse. The Calamity Supreme and the others, being in the Wilds, would feel it more strongly. His hurry made sense. To know for sure, Lin would have to leave here—and drop the Pearl's shroud—to taste the change firsthand.
He began refining the grand array. When this one was done, only the Upper and Lower Domain arrays would remain. The Upper Domain's posed no problem; relations with the Central were always good, and now he had precise coordinates. The Lower Domain would be trickier; few knew anything about it. Lin knew nothing; even Mu Tianze's dossiers lacked it. The Lower Domain was shrouded in mystery—he'd have to go see for himself.
Outside the array, the North Pole Supreme's true body arrived; his blue hair and robe shimmered as the avatar dissolved into his form. Eyes like lightning, he stared at the activated array. He saw only emptiness within—Supreme or not, he couldn't peer into the core—but he felt something queer: the array was undergoing a peculiar change.
"Someone went in. Likely him. The gate of that place opened too—was that him as well? He went in and came out… so why can't I sense a thing? What trick is he using?" He frowned. "Looks like ordinary methods won't find you."
He produced a pearl that radiated blue light and cold. "Seal."
In an instant, a hundred million li of void froze; all things fell silent.
Holding the blue pearl, he said coldly, "Let's see how you leave my seal."
In the core, refining, Lin suddenly glanced outside. Through the array he saw it clearly: a blue pearl freezing the vast void. "That pearl… seems akin to the Hidden Spirit Pearl and the Mind-Chaos Pearl." He judged it another ancient Spirit Pearl.
Little Tree said, "It's the Water Spirit Pearl—one of the Five-Element Spirit Pearls. Back then five were birthed together—gold, wood, water, fire, earth—called the Five-Element Spirit Pearls. Later they merged into the Chaos Five-Element Heavenly Venerable."
"Just a fancy name," Chaoszi sniffed. "He was garbage—died early."
Little Tree chuckled. "True—weak. Killed in short order, then split back into five pearls and scattered. This is one of them."
"Together they were garbage; apart they're even more garbage," Chaoszi said, thoroughly unimpressed—quite a change from when he'd coveted the Mind-Chaos Pearl. After fine fare, he'd grown picky.
"When I'm done refining," Lin said, "Little Tree, open a time-space channel from inside the array. We leave."
"No problem," Little Tree replied. Lin had no desire to clash with a Supreme now; best to slip past and demonstrate that such tricks were useless against him. As Little Tree's strength returned, constructing channels grew ever easier; aside from a few special zones, there was almost nowhere he couldn't reach. Once, his roots had spread across half the Chaos.
A dozen days later, the refinement finished. "Do it," Lin said.
Little Tree was ready. Roots pierced the void, a channel snapped into being, reaching a hundred billion li away. Lin cloaked himself with the Pearl and stepped through. The core fell silent again—one statue gone, a new master installed, nothing else changed.
Outside, the North Supreme had no idea Lin was gone. He held his vigil. A hundred days later, the activated array suddenly shrank back into a dot.
"He left?!" His expression changed. He couldn't believe Lin had slipped away under his nose without a trace—might even have left long ago—while he played the clown keeping watch.
Fury flared; his eyes glowed blue. "Don't let me catch you—if I do, I'll cut you down!"
He never realized that the moment he said it, his Dao-heart was no longer what it had been—becoming irritable.