"Mr. Chen..."

"Mr. Chen?"

Chen Mo snapped back to reality, only to realize Yu Hongyin was standing next to him, looking at him with concern. "Are you okay?"

"What happened?" His expression was still a bit dazed.

Yu Hongyin scratched her head, "Just now, after you touched this stone monument, you didn't move at all. It was like you were hit by an immobilization spell; your face even lost all its color. You looked quite frightening..."

"A hallucination?"

"No, it was all real. I witnessed what happened back then with my own eyes!"

Chen Mo came to his senses, filled with shock.

He wasn't sure how this scene had been preserved. Perhaps it was Baxa's obsession in life, or maybe it was the effect of this stone monument.

But what he could confirm was, he recognized the man who killed the alien beast!

And they had met not long ago!

"Martial Saint Pei Fengmian..."

"It was him?!"

Compared to the elder he had seen at Martial Saint Mountain, the man looked much younger, but his facial features were quite similar, maybe eighty to ninety percent, and his voice was exactly the same. It could almost certainly be concluded that it was the same person!

"He also mentioned the name Ling Xiao, which should refer to that Qilin?"

Back then, Huo Wuya had said that after proving his path to the Ultimate Venerable and founding the Martial Saint Mountain, one day Pei Fengmian and the Holy Beast Qilin suddenly disappeared, leaving no clue of their whereabouts.

Long after, only the heavily injured Qilin returned to the sect, yet Pei Fengmian was still missing. Only when the bound Divine Soul Jade Scroll shattered did they know he had perished!

Martial Saint Mountain searched for hundreds of years but never found the body, nor understood why their ancestor ultimately fell...

"Could it be that Master Pei died here?"

Chen Mo furrowed his brows tightly.

From what he could see in that scene, the pressure Pei Fengmian exuded was at the top tier of the Ultimate Venerable level, possibly even surpassing Huo Wuya.

Such a figure wouldn't be far off from being invincible in the world.

What terrifying entity, then, could have killed Pei Fengmian?

"Now's not the time to think about these things. It's been so long, and chasing it down wouldn't yield any results."

"What's most important now is to find the Immortal Materials to refine a Golden Core first."

Just as Chen Mo was about to leave, his gaze fell upon that stone monument, surprisingly discovering that he could suddenly understand the characters upon it.

[Mountains and rivers fall into the palm, the stele rises to suppress the Nine Abysses, majestic and unyielding, unreachable and unattainable.]

"Zhenyu Stele..."

"Since it could suppress and kill Baxa, it must be an extraordinary magical treasure. Maybe I should just take it along."

He activated the Purple Extreme Cave Heaven, with an invisible force field spreading and climbing the monument, trying to refine it.

Yet the stone monument was too large, and even when extending the force field as much as possible, he couldn't entirely envelop it.

Reluctantly, Chen Mo had to give up. He muttered unwillingly, "What a pity; if only it could shrink a bit..."

Shrrr—

A soft sound echoed.

Perhaps it was a misconception, but the stone monument seemed to have indeed shrunk a bit.

"Hmm?"

Chen Mo was taken aback for a moment, then tentatively said, "Even smaller?"

Under his watch, the stone monument's size shrank again, the height reducing to fifty zhang!

"It really works!"

"Smaller, even smaller..."

Eventually, that towering hundred-zhang stone monument shrank to the size of a palm and fell into his grasp!

Weighing it in his hand, it felt quite hefty, about a hundred pounds. It seemed that not only could its size be adjusted at will, but its mass also changed accordingly, truly extraordinary!

Immediately, a system prompt flashed before his eyes:

[You have obtained a wonder: Zhenyu Stele.]

Only then did Chen Mo realize that this magical treasure did not need refining; from the moment he recognized the inscription, it already belonged to him!

"Could it be that because I obtained Master Pei's inheritance, this item easily recognized me as its owner?"

"Consider it an unexpected gain..."

Putting away the Zhenyu Stele, he turned around, only to find Yu Hongyin and others staring at him in astonishment.

"What is it?" Chen Mo feigned ignorance, asking, "Why are you looking at me like that?"

Yu Hongyin moved her throat, gesticulating with her hands, "How did such a big stone monument suddenly become so small?"

"Oh, you're talking about this." Chen Mo chuckled, speaking nonchalantly, "Perhaps this thing is fated to be with me and recognized me inexplicably."

???

The three of them looked at each other, full of confusion.

Others risked their lives and fought desperately to seize a chance, yet Chen Mo just landed and picked up a treasure?

This luck is truly against the heavens!

Moreover, this is likely a Magic Artifact used by the Ultimate Venerable, and it recognized its master so easily?

Chen Mo didn't explain much; his intuition told him that it was best not to disclose the scene he had just witnessed, or it might cause big trouble.

He took out the map from the Heavenly Profound Ring, compared it carefully, and roughly determined his current position.

"This place is deep within the Secret Realm; going further east will lead to the core area."

"That area hasn't been explored yet, and it's a blank slate on the map, with unknown danger levels."

"As for the location of the Immortal Materials..."

Chen Mo closed his eyes slightly, and a silver light shone from his brow.

This was an unfamiliar world, its laws differing slightly from those of Jiu Zhou, but the principles of yin and yang and the Five Elements were the same, so the techniques of deduction were still effective.

Exerting the full power of his Heavenly Eye, the divine light penetrated thousands of miles, finally detecting a faint trace of life energy in the southeast direction.

It's very likely Wood Attribute Immortal Materials!

"Found it!"

Chen Mo opened his eyes, a flash of light passing through them.

Many people had entered the Secret Realm this time, and they were quite spread out. To avoid anyone getting ahead of him to seize the Immortal Materials, he had to set off quickly without delay!

He turned to Yu Hongyin and said, "I have something I must do this time, and I might encounter danger. Why don't we part ways here? You can seek other opportunities."

"I, I'm not afraid of danger!"

Yu Hongyin, hearing this, felt tense inside and quickly said, "I came here to train; opportunities don't matter. Instead of wandering around like a headless fly, I'd feel more at ease following Mr. Chen..."

"..."

An Mengni looked at her with a peculiar expression.

You say "opportunities don't matter" just to travel with Chen Mo?

"This..."

"Alright then."

Chen Mo hesitated slightly but nodded.

Though it was a bit troublesome to have a tagalong, they were life-and-death friends, and it didn't seem right to just leave her behind. He would take her along for now and see what happens when they encounter the Netherworld Sect people.

"What about Miss An?" Chen Mo looked at An Mengni.

An Mengni, arm in arm with Yu Hongyin, smiled and said, "This Secret Realm is very dangerous, and I'm also worried about Hongyin. Why don't I join you as well?"

"Together, together."

Zhu Shuang also nodded in agreement.

"Then let's go, stay close."

Seeing this, Chen Mo said no more, leaping up and flying towards the southeast.

The three of them followed closely.

He didn't deliberately slow down, and with the aid of the Magic Artifacts, Yu Hongyin and An Mengni could barely keep up. Although it was a bit strenuous, they didn't lag far behind.

Meanwhile, Zhu Shuang hung behind to guard against any crises.

Along the way, Chen Mo deployed his Divine Sense to scan the surroundings.

To his surprise, even though the Primordial Qi here was exceedingly abundant, he didn't spot any traces of Demon Beasts below in the ocean.

"Strange, if there's a presence like Baxia here, there should be other Alien Beasts too. Could it be they all hid upon detecting intruders?"

Chen Mo frowned, feeling something was off; this world might not be as simple as he thought.

After flying for a quarter of an hour, they finally reached the end of the ocean, where a lush forest extended over hundreds of miles, verdant and dense, with canopies like covers.

Chen Mo took out the Eight Treasures Compass, its pointer aimed deep into the forest, motionless.

He didn't hesitate, plunging straight in.

Within the dense forest, canopies blocked out the sunlight, and visibility dimmed.

The surrounding trees were immensely large, each trunk requiring five people to encircle, exuding an ancient and wild aura.

As they went deeper, mist gradually permeated the air, drastically reducing visibility and even affecting their perceptive range.

This gave Chen Mo an inexplicable sense of familiarity.

As the mist grew thicker, he instinctively slowed his pace.

The Wood Attribute aura became exceptionally intense, and within his Dantian, the Golden Branch swayed as if in response to something. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

After proceeding a few hundred meters, the view suddenly opened up.

Seeing the sight ahead, he finally realized why he felt this familiarity.

"This is..."

"The Creation Ancient Tree?!"