Once the green-robed Daoist finished his grumbling, he said calmly, "Go once you're ready. I'll support you from the shadows." "Yes, senior," Nantian Wan'er said. She looked at Lu Chen, her expression hardening. "Lu-gege, you've always protected me. Today, let me protect you for once." "Protect?" The green-robed Daoist misheard her words and nodded vigorously. "Yes! Once this ordeal is over, I must find a body to leave in the small world and act as protection. At the rate Lu Chen tries to throw his life away, if something happens again, I might vanish for good." Nantian Wan'er fixed her gaze on the rift. "I'm going in." Ignoring the Daoist's muttering, she swiftly formed a hand seal to summon the black and white twin fish. The Innate Bagua Diagram appeared beneath her feet. This time, she stood alone at its center. With the twin fish in each hand, representing yin and yang, she manifested the phantom of the Green Sovereign Divine Tree. Wind Dragon noticed her sudden movement and shouted in alarm, "Wan'er, what are you doing?" She shouted back, "Lord Wind Dragon, this time it's my turn to protect you all!" She firmly stepped on the Innate Bagua Diagram and charged fearlessly into the rift. "When things calm down, you must wake Lu-gege. It is our last chance." Nantian Wan'er's voice trembled, thick with tears. "Please... wake him..." The tears slid down her cheeks, falling like shattered petals to the ground. She had no idea if she would return from this. She and Lu Chen had only just escaped the illusion realm, hardly finding a moment to confess their feelings before being interrupted, and now they were already facing another deadly crisis. Seeing her dash into the rift, Wind Dragon shouted, anxiety lacing his voice, "Wan'er, what are you doing?! You mustn't go in there!" He had followed Lu Chen the longest and knew their secrets better than anyone else. To Lu Chen, Nantian Wan'er's importance was no less than that of Blindman Lu. Any harm that came to her would strike Lu Chen fatally. He couldn't allow her to throw herself into death. Wind Dragon formed a seal and left behind a clone to continue feeding the divine tree with his core power. He lunged forward with his real body to stop Nantian Wan'er, but he was one step too late. He couldn't reach her in time. Nantian Wan'er was already at the heart of the rift, with one foot in the small world and the other on the Heavenly Pool. Cradling the twin fish, she split yin and yang apart with herself at the center. The green-robed Daoist observed the two worlds through the phantom of the divine tree and provided Nantian Wan'er with guidance as she poured out spirit qi to block the surging energies on both sides. Nantian Wan'er shouted, "Dao Art, Stone Wall Formation!" Enormous stone walls erupted from the ground, layer upon layer, encasing the rift and sealing it shut. Wind Dragon arrived just in time to see her crushed beneath the walls. Fury ignited within him. He drew the Hunyaun Greatsword and unleashed a torrent of spirit qi. He swung wildly against the Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree's attacks, erecting a wall of spirit qi in a desperate attempt to shield Wan'er. Without the raging force of spirit qi, the Heavenly Pool gradually settled. The twin fish leapt onto the Acquired Green Sovereign Divine Tree, directing spirit qi to restore the Heavenly Pool to a less chaotic state. Above the tree floated the small planet the green-robed Daoist had gifted Lu Chen. Although hollow inside, it retained complete elements. At this moment, the little planet became the template the divine tree and twin fish relied on to mend the pool. The twin fish manipulated the existing elemental attributes—wood, water, fire, wind, and lightning—positioning them to mirror the Innate Bagua Diagram, and modeled their vertical layers after the small planet. Meanwhile, the Acquired Green Sovereign Divine Tree's roots sank deeper, spreading across the Heavenly Pool's barrier. Spirit pellets at the pool's bottom clung to the Acquired Green Sovereign Divine Tree's roots. It was only a thin layer, but the pellets covered the entire bottom of the Heavenly Pool. However, the tree and fish had limited intelligence. Their arrangement of elements was twisted and uneven. On the surface, it resembled the small planet and the Innate Bagua Diagram, but in essence, it was fundamentally different. The green-robed Daoist saw this crooked reconstruction of the pool from above, and his eyes widened in shock. The divine tree and twin fish had reshaped it into what looked like the budding form of a continent. The Innate Bagua Diagram and the small planet were both treasures he had greatly struggled to obtain. He had intended to leave them for Lu Chen in this lifetime, so that Lu Chen could seize the opportunities of this Golden Era. Yet now, the changes within the Heavenly Pool had given birth to a far greater prototype of a world, one that exceeded the Daoist's very understanding. The green-robed Daoist murmured. "Could it be that turning back time can really alter the past? But I've repeated this so many times... why can't I change Wan'er's fate?" Nantian Wan'er became the heart of the Stone Wall Formation, trapped beneath its weight as she bore the pressure of two worlds. The Heavenly Pool had finally calmed, but within the small world, the situation continued to deteriorate. The raging spirit qi continued to batter the stone walls, causing them to creak under the impact and nearly break apart again. Worried, Nantian Wan'er unleashed two consecutive Stone Wall Formations. Layer upon layer of stone walls pressed tightly together, rising like a towering mountain and burying her completely. Under the guidance of the green-robed Daoist, she poured out her spirit qi, casting Spirit Light Chains that threaded through every stone wall, binding them together. She then wove the chains outward, circling the outer layers a dozen times, until the walls resembled an actual mountain peak. After that, the structure was finally able to withstand the onslaught of the raging energy. Unable to use the Heavenly Pool as an outlet any longer, the violent energy surged deeper into the small world, reaching areas Lu Chen had yet to unlock. Those regions contained even greater reserves of energy and laws. The Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree unleashed its power frenziedly, striking at the defensive barriers of the untouched regions. Each time a barrier was shattered, the tree's vines lashed out, trying to devour the energy that was released. Bai Ze, Flame Demon, and the others could no longer hold on. They spat out blood one after another, and without their support, the barrier around the core region was on the verge of breaking again. Just then, energy suddenly erupted from the depths of the small world. The energy wasn't vast, but it could command the formations within the small world. To Bai Ze and the others, it was like life-saving firewood in a snowstorm, the very thing they had been praying for. The Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree also sensed it. It understood that with this power, it could seize control of the entire small world directly and would no longer need to fight for dominance over the core region. It abandoned its assault on the core region's barrier and directed all its roots and branches toward the region from which the energy had erupted, intent on devouring it and taking control of the entire small world. Just then, a mighty shout rang out from the battlefield. It was the bold, deep voice of a middle-aged man. In response, all the fog and the barriers within the world vanished. The energy of the small world multiplied tens of thousands of times in an instant. The entire small world was revealed in its complete form—enormous and boundless. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novel·fire·net All of it had been built by the man's control of the laws. Mountains, rivers, flowers, trees—all elements of creation appeared in full, and the scale was far greater than that of the current Eastern Pole Continent. Every formation in the small world stirred at the man's command. One by one, the arrays in each region linked together like interlocking gears, transforming the minor world into a massive cage of formations. All those in the core region saw it clearly. A man soared up from the depths of the small world. He drew upon its remaining power, commanding its laws to battle the Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree. The man seemed intimately familiar with the world. The moment he appeared, the laws themselves surrounded him. With the aid of the cage of formations, he swiftly suppressed the Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree's violent energy. Yet the Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree didn't simply give up like that; it retaliated by gathering even more energy to attack him. This eased the pressure on the battle-worn core region. Golden Dragon fixed his gaze on the figure above. "That man can control the entire small world. Could he be..." Bai Ze looked at the figure in the sky and said calmly, "The Seventh Ancestral Avatar, Feng Tiancheng. The one who understands enchanted artifacts better than anyone under the heaven—the very creator of this small world." Wind Dragon deflected a boulder from striking Nantian Wan'er and, spotting the figure above, cried out in excitement, "He's finally awakened! We're saved!" Feng Tiancheng's sudden appearance was a ray of hope. With his mastery over the small world, sealing the Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree with formations would pose no problem. The green-robed Daoist gazed up at the man and whispered, "So, you've finally awakened... It seems this crisis is solved." "Who is he?" Nantian Wan'er asked, puzzled. "Was this the plan you spoke of?" "He is Feng Tiancheng—the one Lu Chen always called Grandpa Feng," the green-robed Daoist replied, his voice calm but tinged with joy. "With Lu Chen unconscious and me unable to manifest myself, he's the only one who can resolve this." Nantian Wan'er nodded. "I see." She continued to maintain the Stone Wall Formation. "I can sense that Lu-gege has already calmed down a lot compared to before. He may wake up soon. But... that golden figure I saw..." The green-robed Daoist said, "He is one of our own. I don't know his true purpose, but I never imagined he would come here as well. Hopefully, he does something about this." "Him? Who exactly is he?" Wan'er asked softly. "He looks like Lu-gege... and so do you." The green-robed Daoist didn't give a direct answer. Instead, he said, "You'll understand in time. For now, let us wait until the small world stabilizes." After the fierce battle in the depths of the small world, Feng Tiancheng finally showed up and suppressed the Innate Green Sovereign Divine Tree. All the violent energy within the world was forced back into the tree, and the dark halo atop its crown shattered completely.