Although the Dragon Soul Wood was only a mid-grade Xiantian spiritual treasure, its self-destruction power was by no means small!
Yet Taichu, single-mindedly bent on executing the two of them, chose not to dodge at all, but instead opted to take the blow head-on!
It was not that Taichu was being overly arrogant; after all, by this time his physical body had already reached the Early-Stage Da Luo Golden Immortal realm, so he was not entirely without the strength to withstand it!
Seeing the spiritual treasure detonate, Ancestor Hunkun and Ancestor Wuji chose to flee at the very first moment!
"Where do you think you're going!"
With a furious roar, Taichu waved the Hongmeng Heaven-Measuring Ruler, striking down a distance that spanned the ends of the earth in a single step!
Two mournful cries rang out as the pair desperately fled toward the distance.
"Dammit!"
Glancing in the direction of their escape, Taichu cursed bitterly!
"The next time I run into those two, I'll definitely slaughter them!"
Enduring the self-destruction of a mid-grade Xiantian spiritual treasure had not been pleasant for Taichu either!
Looking at the injuries inflicted upon him by the explosion, Taichu gave a bitter shake of his head!
"My cultivation is still too low. It seems I must cultivate diligently and quickly, otherwise what will I use to guard the Honghuang for Big Brother!"
With that, he turned back to look, only to see three immortal islands abruptly appearing upon the surface of the East China Sea at that very moment!
Arranged in the shape of the character "pin", the topmost one was Penglai Immortal Island, flanked on either side by Fangzhang Island and Yingzhou Island!
These were none other than the renowned Three Immortals Island!
Taichu was stunned by the sight before him; this truly was a blessed land of the immortals!
The spiritual Qi on the islands was more than ten times that of the Honghuang mainland, filled with lush, towering ancient trees, all manner of ten-thousand-year-old glossy ganoderma, exotic flowers, rare herbs, and ginseng scattered everywhere!
Stepping onto the island, Taichu formed hand seals to set up an array before beginning to tour the interior.
He entered Penglai Island first, and the moment he set foot upon it, Taichu was utterly dumbfounded!
An ancient tree soared straight into the clouds, radiating wave after wave of Dao rhythms!
"This—this is a Chaos Spiritual Root, the Enlightenment Tea Tree! How can this be?" Taichu cried out in astonishment!
The Enlightenment Tea Tree possessed the ability to aid beings in comprehending the Dao. If one were to drink Enlightenment Tea and cultivate beneath this Enlightenment Tea Tree, progress would advance a thousand miles in a single day, achieving twice the result with half the effort!
Just as Taichu stood there in shock, a flash of white light crossed his eyes. Following the source of the light, Taichu was practically struck dumb with amazement!
Right beside the Enlightenment Tea Tree was a pond, and at the very center of the pond floated a white lotus platform—a white lotus in full bloom with twelve grades!
Not only that, but the water in this pond was even more extraordinary: it was the number one divine water of Honghuang, the Three-Light Divine Water!
These Three-Light Divine Water consisted of the Sunlight Divine Water, the Moonlight Divine Water, and the Starlight Divine Water!
Separated, each of these three divine waters was the deadliest poison in the world, capable of harming even a person's primordial spirit; yet combined, they formed the supreme healing holy medicine of the world, capable of bringing the dead back to life and regenerating flesh upon bare bones!
At this moment, Taichu broke into a radiant smile!
"It seems my affinity for fortune is truly profound!"
As he spoke, Taichu looked back toward the white lotus.
Born from the same roots as Pangu, theoretically the Chaos Green Lotus was also his mother!
Encountering the white lotus now, he naturally felt a deep, innate sense of affinity. If he could gather all the lotus platforms, he wondered if the Chaos Green Lotus could be recreated!
At this thought, Taichu hurriedly fished out the Chaos Bead!
The Chaos Bead remained dim and devoid of luster!
He carefully placed the Chaos Bead into the pond water to nourish it.
After patrolling Penglai Immortal Island and finding no other treasures, Taichu moved on to Fangzhang Island!
"Since they are both among the Three Immortals Island, Penglai Island holds so many treasures, so Fangzhang Island surely won't be much worse!"
With this thought, Taichu looked around once again!
The area of Fangzhang Island was somewhat smaller than that of Penglai Island. Walking across the island, Taichu looked carefully but failed to find a single treasure!
"That shouldn't be! As immortal islands, how could Fangzhang Island possibly have no treasures?" Taichu muttered to himself while spreading his divine sense to search meticulously!
Still, he found nothing at all!
"So be it! Since these three immortal islands are already mine, there's no need to rush. I'll refine the three immortal islands first and talk later!"
In truth, it wasn't that Fangzhang Island lacked treasures; rather, they were concealed by an array. Once Taichu refined the island, every single treasure would naturally become known to him the moment his mind stirred.
This refinement took a full millennium. Taichu then placed an additional defensive array and a concealment array around the immortal islands!
Looking at his own handiwork, Taichu nodded in satisfaction.
"With so many heavenly materials and earthly treasures fused into it, the defensive power of the island-guarding array is now such that anyone with a cultivation level below the Peak Da Luo Golden Immortal won't just fail to break the array—they won't even be able to detect it. I'll leave it at that for now; once my own cultivation improves in the future, I can rearrange it!"
Having finished all this, Taichu flew directly back beneath the Enlightenment Tea Tree and began his closed-door cultivation!
Meanwhile, in the northern lands, two figures were fleeing in a disheveled state!
"Are you saying that junior from earlier was Pangu's second brother?" Hunkun asked in terror!
"More or less," Ancestor Wuji said indifferently!
"My goodness!"
Ancestor Hunkun instinctively raised his hand to strike Ancestor Wuji, only to discover that one of his own arms had already been cleanly severed by the Hongmeng Heaven-Measuring Ruler!
Ancestor Hunkun demanded, "Since you recognized him, why didn't you say so earlier, instead of waiting until we got beaten black and blue before mentioning it?"
Ancestor Wuji opened his mouth to reply, "More or less!"
Catching sight of Ancestor Hunkun's chilling glare, he forcefully swallowed the words back down and didn't dare make a peep!
Speaking thus, the two of them limped all the way back to their own Daoist sanctuary!
On Yujing Mountain!
Hongjun slowly opened his eyes!
By this time, Hongjun's Dao injuries had fully healed, and relying on the fragments of the Creation Jade Disc, his cultivation had surged forward, faintly touching the threshold of the Mid-Stage Da Luo Golden Immortal!
Having attained the Dao as a cricket, Hongjun had been the lowest-ranking and least conspicuous demon god in the Chaos.
Having escaped into Honghuang by riding the waves of the Cataclysm of Opening the Heavens, he vowed that in this lifetime he would rise above others—no, to be precise, he would become the cricket above all crickets!
Seeing that his cultivation had faintly reached the Mid-Stage Da Luo Golden Immortal realm, he felt he was formidable again!
"If I want to dominate Honghuang alone, I must possess a sufficient number of spiritual treasures. Therefore, I must collect enough treasures!" Hongjun muttered to himself!
"The moment I think of spiritual treasures, I think of that Taichu. He is simply odious! If it weren't for that Taichu back then, I could have harvested quite a few spiritual treasures!"
Thinking of this, Hongjun grew furious all over again, but looking at his current cultivation level, he smiled with satisfaction once more!
With that, he took a step forward and arrived once more at the center of Honghuang!
It wasn't that Hongjun had some sort of obsession with treasures; after all, under the same realm of cultivation, a fine spiritual treasure was enough to render oneself invincible.
In other words, under identical conditions, whoever had the better spiritual treasure would not lose, and whoever had the better spiritual treasure would survive!
The Chaos world was like this, and the Honghuang world was naturally no different!
After wandering around, Hongjun arrived outside the Pangu Hall. When he was still ten million miles away from the Pangu Hall, he could advance no further; the pressure emanating from Pangu pressed down so hard that the bones in Hongjun's body creaked!
"Dammit!" Hongjun cursed inwardly!
"Clearly I can sense there are supreme treasures ahead, yet I can advance not even a fraction of an inch. Truly infuriating!"
Casting a vicious glare at the Pangu Hall, Hongjun retreated outside the sphere of pressure!
"Pangu Hall, is it? Very well! This ancestor has made a note of you!"
With a cold snort, he turned around and left!