Chapter 817: Born Before Heaven and Earth

Chu Feng grew genuinely anxious, his heart pounding with dread. The flow of time on the Ferocious Beast Plateau was terrifyingly different from the outside world.

"I hope Great Dream Pure Land's calculations are wrong!" he prayed, knowing that otherwise, he would be in deep trouble.

What did it mean for one night in Great Dream Pure Land to equate to a hundred years on the Ferocious Beast Plateau?

He had been outside for about seven or eight days. Did that mean seven or eight centuries had already passed on the Ferocious Beast Plateau?!

Chu Feng's face went pale with shock.

Most critically, given this accelerated time flow, Ying Zhexian, Qin Luoyin, and the others would undoubtedly no longer be on the Ferocious Beast Plateau, regardless of whether they were alive or dead.

After seven or eight days, the trial would certainly be over. If Great Dream Pure Land discovered his physical body was unresponsive, would they assume he was dead?

Being buried would be one thing, but what if they simply cremated him? The thought sent shivers down Chu Feng's spine. If he didn't revive for an extended period, his physical body would effectively be a corpse, making it vulnerable to all sorts of unfortunate events.

"Calm down, don't rush," he told himself. "Eight hundred years have passed on the Ferocious Beast Plateau, which means eight days have elapsed in Great Dream Pure Land. Whatever was meant to happen has already occurred."

He had been so engrossed in comprehending the "Small Six Paths Time Technique" that he hadn't thoroughly searched the area. Now, though he was about to depart, he was no longer in a rush. He wanted to bring back some "local souvenirs."

But all he found were god corpses, each permeated with strange gray matter. Bringing back contaminated remains was out of the question.

Surely hundreds of god corpses would have left something behind. Their personal artifacts might not be entirely destroyed.

Chu Feng patiently searched, finding numerous items: tattered armor, an iron sword shattered into eighteen pieces, a decaying great bow. These had once been divine artifacts, but the stone grinding disk had crushed them almost beyond recognition, their spiritual essence long gone.

On some artifacts, in particular, the gray substance was so dense and pervasive that it couldn't be removed.

Chu Feng truly didn't dare to use his soul light to move the corpses. The gray substance was too dangerous; even deities would suffer from it, and it was certainly beyond what his current level of evolution could resist.

He resorted to using rocks and dirt to sift through the corpses.

"Is this a strange form of 'corpse scavenging'?" he wondered.

Unfortunately, the stone grinding disk had rendered even divine weapons unrecognizable. He considered himself lucky if he could salvage any fragments.

Sizzling sounds emanated from some of the corpses.

Rocks were melting from corrosive, unidentified liquids seeping from some of the god corpses.

Using various rock tools, Chu Feng searched through over three hundred corpses but found little. The fractured weapons were all encased in gray matter, heavily corroded.

"Oh?!"

Finally, after sifting through over four hundred corpses, he discovered something unusual: a misty mass. On closer inspection, it was actually metal, but it was enveloped in fine, misty tendrils.

What was more, when he carefully pried it from a god corpse, it remarkably separated from the gray substance, not appearing to be thoroughly ensnared by it.

It was a miniature, green-skinned gourd, only the size of his thumb, glowing emerald green and emanating a rich, innate vital essence.

In a place permeated with death energy and dense, strange substances, for a gourd to possess such vibrant vitality was truly extraordinary.

Chu Feng carefully moved it to a safe spot. As he scrutinized it, his pupils involuntarily contracted, and two golden symbols manifested in his eyes. His Fiery Golden Eyes glowed with divine light as he fixed his gaze upon it.

"An innate object, born in chaos?!"

Chu Feng was astonished, feeling it strongly resembled the divine artifacts said to grow from innate spiritual roots described in ancient texts.

Such items were sometimes born even before heaven and earth themselves!

The green gourd was very small, appearing not yet mature, yet it was enveloped in wisps of primordial chaos and radiated a potent innate vitality.

The more he examined it, the more convinced he became. All its characteristics matched, strongly suggesting it was indeed an innate gourd.

Such an item was incredibly rare, born in primordial chaos. However, those chaotic realms were typically saturated with lightning sigils and seas of immortal light, enough to obliterate even deities who dared to enter.

Of course, simply entering chaos didn't guarantee its discovery, let alone its retrieval.

In fact, chaos was barren and vast; without immense fortune, one could search for millennia and still never find a single spiritual root.

"Is this truly an innate gourd?" Chu Feng was thrilled.

While in the Underworld Universe, he had read numerous texts about various treasures, which had mentioned how incredibly difficult it was to find such innate objects.

However, he also noticed minute, spiderweb-like cracks on the green gourd. This disappointed him greatly, as he suspected they were caused by the stone grinding disk.

Chu Feng sighed; that stone grinding disk was truly terrifying.

"No, wait, it also shows signs of a lightning strike!" Chu Feng observed faint, easily overlooked scorch marks along the cracks.

After a thorough examination with his Fiery Golden Eyes, he concluded that the gourd's damage stemmed from it being newly formed and not yet fully developed.

It was simply too small, merely thumb-sized and still verdant. Ancient texts indicated that mature gourds of this type were typically golden-yellow or purple-gold.

In the past, supreme powerhouses of the Underworld Universe had been fortunate enough to glimpse such items, but had not dared to retrieve them, watching helplessly as the chaotic rifts closed and the innate spiritual roots vanished.

After a long deliberation, Chu Feng decided that despite its immaturity and cracks, the green gourd was still usable. Crucially, it hadn't been contaminated by the gray substance.

He then proceeded with a careful and cautious study, discovering that the green gourd was truly in its raw, unrefined state—a genuine "uncut jade."

"Normally, a mature innate gourd could contain vast oceans, fill countless mountains, and when it emitted light, it could destroy planets," he mused. "But this one isn't fully grown, so it certainly won't possess such power."

Chu Feng considered this, then carefully manipulated the gourd, attempting to store various rocks and other items. He found it could contain a significant volume, indicating a substantial internal space.

He then emptied the contents.

Next, he attempted to send a faint wisp of his soul light into it. Instantly, that wisp of spiritual energy turned to ash and vanished.

"Soul-refining?!"

His expression grew solemn. He tried again, and another faint wisp of his soul light disintegrated and vanished at the gourd's mouth.

"This thing is extraordinary!" Chu Feng concluded that the green gourd absolutely could not hold living beings; anything placed inside would instantly perish.

He mused that if properly refined, it could potentially become a devastating weapon, capable of annihilating a person's soul light!

There was no time to waste now. He was eager to return, but he wasn't sure if this item could accompany him back to Great Dream Pure Land.

Next, Chu Feng pondered what "local souvenirs" to bring back. He couldn't possibly fill the gourd with god corpses, could he, and then hand them out to acquaintances?

He'd likely be beaten to death!

"Never mind," he decided. "There's nothing good here. You guys shouldn't expect gifts. I'll just teach you some god-tier exotic arts later."

Still, returning empty-handed felt unsatisfactory. Chu Feng pondered, his gaze finally settling on the most dangerous element present: the eerie gray mist.

This substance terrified even deities, tormenting them to miserable deaths in their later years. Its effects weren't merely supernatural; they also brought ill fortune and decay.

However, Chu Feng was also wary of playing with fire, fearing he might invite disaster upon himself.

"Forget it," he decided. "The green gourd is an innate divine artifact; it should be able to hold some. I'll take it with me for now. If I run into some imbecile later, I'll just give them a gourdful directly."

With his heart in his throat, Chu Feng then carefully activated the green gourd, causing it to absorb the gray substance.

He wasn't a hoarder, but he had to admit that absorbing such an extremely dangerous, weapon-like substance was surprisingly addictive. Once he activated the green gourd, he found it hard to stop.

Large quantities of gray mist around him rose, swirling rapidly into the gourd's mouth. Gradually, the area transformed into a hazy, turbulent gray zone.

This startling phenomenon forced Chu Feng to flee. He only returned to resume collection after the area had settled down.

Eventually, with the hundreds of god corpses no longer emitting much gray mist, he sealed the innate treasure with its self-contained stopper.

"Time to go home!"

Chu Feng sped like lightning, retracing his path. Five thousand li was nothing to him; even before he could fly, an hour of frantic running on foot would suffice. Now, it was even less of a challenge.

However, upon seeing the light gate, Chu Feng hesitated. He figured he would be fine returning alone, but what about bringing the green gourd, especially with its existing cracks?

If the gourd were to explode, he would certainly perish.

"I'll try it first," he decided.

With a whoosh, Chu Feng passed through the light gate and quickly spotted the grinding disk. He immediately threw the green gourd into it.

"Huh, it didn't shatter!"

Chu Feng didn't dare to delay. He rushed in, his body glowing with the protective light of the talisman paper's patterns. Locating the green gourd, he shielded it with the same light.

*Crack!*

Chu Feng felt agonizing pain in his soul. Just as when he arrived, his soul light was being torn apart, enduring an excruciating, limb-by-limb disintegration.

Fortunately, shielded by the talisman paper's light, he wouldn't die. The mysterious talisman paper from the forbidden area was truly astonishing; the light it emitted was enough to prevent his soul light from dissipating, allowing it to reform.

In a way, the black talisman paper the young Daoist priest had brought from the first forbidden zone was even more formidable than deities, considering how many gods had perished in this very place.

"Oh no!" Chu Feng's face turned green. The cracks on the green gourd had multiplied, becoming denser. The grinding disk was proving to be too much for it to bear.

"Please don't explode!" Chu Feng thought, terrified, ready to discard it at any moment. If it shattered beside him, he would surely meet a terrible end.

Once that gray substance clung to someone, it was impossible to remove, proving unbearable even for deities.

The journey, though fraught with danger, was ultimately safe. Chu Feng escaped the grinding disk and burst out of the area. His soul light had been torn apart countless times but had always reformed.

The green gourd was covered in a dense network of cracks, a sight that made his heart pound, but it had thankfully not completely shattered.

"Has it really been eight hundred years?" Chu Feng's heart trembled. As he expected, no one was outside. Ying Zhexian, Ouyang Feng, Qin Luoyin, the silver-haired loli, and the others were all gone.

He didn't need to ponder; too much time had passed, and they clearly couldn't have waited for him.

Chu Feng opened his Fiery Golden Eyes, scanning the surroundings repeatedly. Suddenly, his gaze locked onto a particular spot—the very place where he and the others had once stopped.

He instantly flew over, landing on the ground. There, he saw some carved messages, left by the others.