After the storm passed, amidst the surrounding sand grains, there were weathered skeletons, as well as some remains of humans and beasts, and even some fragments of magic treasures and immortal artifacts.
Fang Han sent out his divine sense to explore, intending to look for valuable items within.
The environment in this desert was indeed incomparably harsh. A single desert storm could slice through space, shattering countless kingdoms. It could even directly blow a half-step Golden Immortal almighty being to death.
In Shazhou, there were many ancient ruins. Who knows how many Heavenly Realm experts came here every year to search for the treasures within the ruins, but even more were buried in this harsh environment.
"Discovered the Dragon Race's peerless Golden Immortal Ao Shizun?" Just as Fang Han sent out his divine sense, he saw the Dragon Seeking Needle spinning ceaselessly, with streaks of dragon qi flying out from within.
He was also startled, then secretly circulated the Eight Sections Pagoda, sensing the dragon breath in the void.
Sure enough, as soon as he circulated the power of the Eight Sections Pagoda, he sensed that faintly from some spaces and times, fragments of a powerful dragon breath were transmitted over. This dragon breath was extremely violent, noble, ancient, profound, and at the same time contained unfathomable profundities. It seemed as if traces of comprehension surpassing a Golden Immortal were contained within it.
Nourished by this dragon breath, the Eight Sections Pagoda emitted a burst of bright and gentle luster.
"Make no mistake, this is the aura of the Dragon Race's peerless Golden Immortal Ao Shizun. Rumors have it that he had already cultivated to the peak of a Golden Immortal long ago and was preparing to comprehend the laws of an Ancestor. Now, within this dragon breath, there are profundities approaching the Dao of the Ancestral Immortal. Evidently, this dragon has recently plundered massively, and his cultivation has grown again. Everyone must be extremely careful."
"Venerable Bing" issued a warning. A trace of black light surfaced on his body, gradually turning transparent as he seemed to hide himself, transforming into a faint, twisted shadow. Following the direction pointed by the Dragon Seeking Needle, he flew wildly without stopping.
Fang Han naturally followed, but he poured all his magical power into the Wings of Freedom and held the Staff of Legend in his hand. As soon as anything went wrong, he would immediately flee.
Moving like lightning, the thirteen great experts pounced fiercely like wolves and tigers; countless sand dunes and broad Gobi deserts rapidly fell behind them.
At this moment, the thirteen great experts faintly combined their powers together, forming a unified whole, jointly forging a divine kingdom, casually traversing and jumping to track the dragon breath.
Fang Han directly output the power of legend. Naturally, he was secretly using the Eight Sections Pagoda to track. In a certain aspect, the Eight Sections Pagoda's ability to track Dragon Race experts was much stronger than the Dragon Seeking Needle.
The faint dragon breath in the void continuously entered the Eight Sections Pagoda. Gradually, a massive phantom of a golden dragon manifested on the Destiny Sphere inside the Pagoda. This golden dragon had a full seven claws, each claw densely covered with immemorial textures, and the dragon scales on its body were each dozens of miles in size. Upon those dragon scales, Golden Immortal laws were interwoven tightly, containing profound intents.
Furthermore, Fang Han sensed a powerful soul and majesty, making the Destiny Sphere tremble, as if it had a tendency to explode. This was the main body of the Dragon Race's peerless Golden Immortal expert, Ao Shizun.
Fang Han tried his hardest to manifest the environment Ao Shizun was in within the Destiny Sphere, but it was all destroyed by the intense majesty of the dragon breath.
"Such a powerful Dragon Emperor. If I can really butcher him, I must definitely plunder his corpse! However, I can't fall out with the Hongqi Tower either…" Fang Han was already starting to calculate.
"It's getting stronger and stronger. Right ahead! It's an abandoned ancient city."
"That abandoned ancient city is a city left behind by a Heavenly Lord from prehistoric times. Having undergone the transitions of countless hundreds of millions of years, all the divine power has already vanished."
Suddenly, the Dragon Seeking Needle pointed straight.
An enormous desolate ancient city appeared before Fang Han. There were ruins everywhere, stretching for who knows how many hundreds of millions of miles. The ancient city was eroded by wind and sand everywhere, but one could still feel that from the distant years, a glory originating from the various heavens, a will that shocked eternity and could not be obliterated, was hidden within it.
This was a city built and left behind by an ancient Heavenly Lord.
Venerable Juexing's body stiffened. He stopped in mid-air, waving his hand, "Hide your auras individually. This ancient city is called the City of Desolation. I don't know how many eons it has existed, but it contains endless mysteries. I knew that old dragon would hide inside it to cultivate, because for hundreds of millions of years, who knows how many immemorial mighty beings have come into it. Some died and were buried inside; some obtained some treasures and left. Now it is truly desolate, but legends say there are still undiscovered treasures inside."
"Hmph! How could it be that easy? A million years ago, many existences surpassing Golden Immortals came looking, gaining absolutely nothing, and later it was truly abandoned."
"This… isn't this the ancient city ruins holding the Divine Artifact of Creation?"
Fang Han observed everything about this ancient city. Suddenly, his heart surged with excitement as he activated the "Zhou Tian Instrument" within the Thirty-Three Heavens supreme treasure. Suddenly, this "Zhou Tian Instrument" drastically flickered, appearing once again in the boundless desert. Deep within the ruins of the ancient city, a fragment of a Divine Artifact of Creation taller than a person hovered quietly.
It was this city.
It was this desert.
"Fang Han, you truly travel far and wide looking for something, only to find it easily." Yan roared wildly, "A Divine Artifact of Creation! Such a large fragment of a Divine Artifact of Creation."
"Don't get too excited… that fragment of the Divine Artifact of Creation is deep inside the ancient city. Didn't you hear? Many major figures came searching and couldn't find a single treasure." Fang Han calmed his excited mood.
A fragment of a Divine Artifact of Creation taller than a person was indeed too tempting. If he could obtain it, the benefits would be unimaginably massive. Once refined, with his current cultivation, he might even be able to fight and kill a Golden Immortal bare-handed!
"Everyone, pay attention! That old dragon is hiding right in this City of Desolation. We will hide and go in now. The moment we discover the old dragon, we will immediately lay down the Dragon Slaughtering Great Array, summon the Dragon Slaughtering Sabers we have cultivated, and deal him a lethal blow." Venerable Lin's body tensed up, looking like a wild beast capturing its prey; the aura on his body was concealed to perfection.
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh…
The thirteen individuals flew sequentially into the City of Desolation.
Fang Han's speed was the most silent and traceless, like a child of the void. Even Venerable Juexing and the others, if their auras weren't linked together, wouldn't have been able to discern his tracks.
Everyone felt a jolt in their hearts, secretly shocked.
Fang Han, on the other hand, was cautiously operating the Zhou Tian Instrument to calculate the whereabouts of that fragment of the Divine Artifact of Creation. Sure enough, in the Zhou Tian Instrument, that fragment of the Divine Artifact of Creation taller than a person became clearer and clearer. This shard of the Divine Artifact of Creation seemed to have been carved into the shape of a person, remarkably lifelike, but the features were not clear; it was a woman. Her lapels fluttered, as if walking against the wind, seemingly taking pity on the hardships of the universe and the countless disasters of the common people.
"Using a fragment of a Divine Artifact of Creation to sculpt a woman? This must be the technique of a Heavenly Lord!"
Divine Artifacts of Creation; even a Heavenly Lord couldn't refine one. Only the legendary Immortal Kings could forge them successfully. However, this did not prevent a Heavenly Lord who obtained a fragment of a Divine Artifact of Creation from carefully sculpting it.
The crowd shuttled through the City of Desolation, entering the city as if entering a maze. Everywhere there were ruined walls, broken pillars, piles of rubble, damaged grand halls, and even some incomplete statues of ancient gods.
But they had all lost their divine power and held no laws. It was just that the materials were relatively sturdy, though they were also gradually being weathered away.
Occasionally, among those ruined walls and broken pillars, there were weathered skeletons. The vast majority of them were half-step Golden Immortal almighty beings, but not a single trace of a Great Luo law could be found on them anymore, and their essence qi had also dissipated into the air.
"Strange? Why did that old dragon's aura suddenly become weak? It seems like he's going to leave this ancient city?"
The amplitude of vibration on the Dragon Seeking Needle in Venerable Dou's hand suddenly shrank a bit.
"Chase!"
The crowd's speed accelerated again.
"He's right ahead!" The state of the Dragon Seeking Needle shifted again, vibrating violently.
Just as the crowd landed inside a grand hall spanning several thousands of miles, suddenly, that Dragon Seeking Needle exploded at once. It seemed to have reached the maximum limit it could withstand.
At this time, everyone saw that deep within the grand hall, beneath a tall yet broken god statue, stood a man dressed in white clothes. This man's appearance was between middle age and the prime of life. His body exuded an elegant temperament. His facial features were extremely handsome, but between his brows, there was an aura of worldly vicissitudes. One hand caressed the broken god statue, seeming like a literati composing poetry.
"Everyone, tracking me for so long, you must genuinely be too exhausted."
This man in white faced Fang Han and the others with his side profile, carrying an expression that showed he had been expecting these people for a long time, everything entirely within his grasp.
An ominous feeling of great calamity abruptly rose in Fang Han's heart.
The twelve peerless Golden Immortals of the Hongqi Tower also halted; they seemingly also sensed the atmosphere was amiss.
"Ao Shizun, no matter what, today you must submit to the law." Venerable Juexing was the first to take a step forward: "Our Hongqi Tower has already received the mission from the Heavenly Court. With so many people sieging you today, you can hardly escape the net of the law. Don't deliberately set out diversionary arrays, outwardly strong but inwardly weak. You only have a Golden Immortal cultivation base. Could you actually ascend to heaven today?"
"Hongqi Tower?"
The elegant man in white shook his head: "Being able to dispatch twelve Golden Immortals at once, your methods are indeed tyrannical. Hmm? There's actually a half-step Golden Immortal? Such a little ant-like piece of trash is also mobilized to hunt me down? Are you looking down on me, Ao Shizun, or what?" His gaze swept across everyone one by one, finally fixing onto Fang Han's body, piercing right through him, and clearly seeing Fang Han's cultivation base.
The gap between a half-step Golden Immortal and a Golden Immortal goes without saying. Seeing this kind of trash also coming to hunt him down, the elegant man in white indeed couldn't help but laugh out loud.
"The number of dragons who have died by my hands is at least eight thousand, if not ten thousand. I truly want to see what ability you have, daring to wait for us here so arrogantly." Fang Han stepped forward and said. In fact, his Wings of Freedom were brewing optimal magical power vibration to the utmost degree; the moment anything went wrong, he would flee immediately.
Relying on his intuition, he felt that the situation today was genuinely somewhat wrong.
"So be it, I'll let you all take a look. I'm refining a magic treasure and just lacking the souls of Golden Immortals. You've sent twelve all at once. It truly makes me overjoyed against my expectations."
BOOM!
This elegant man in white struck.