“Should we not inform Elder Nado of this matter?” A voice, raspy with age, echoed within the ancient tower. It belonged to an elder, his道袍 marked with the brown stigmata of time. He hesitated, his gaze flickering amongst the other three figures gathered there.

The voice was none other than Yin Dongshen, the very man who had earlier spoken with such veiled venom toward Wang Lin.

“I, too, advise against provoking this Wang Lin without the Elder’s explicit sanction,” a middle-aged man said, his brow furrowed with concern. “His reputation precedes him. If he comes seeking audience…” His words trailed off.

“The Five Planets Unification Sect fears no one!” a middle-aged woman snapped, her voice sharp as splintered bone. “Let Wang Lin be as renowned as he may, he shall crawl before the might of the Five Planets!”

“Enough!” A black-robed elder, a dark mole marring the skin beneath his right eye, silenced the bickering with a wave of his hand. “I shall decide this matter. Elder Nado is surely aware of these events, and his silence is an invitation to observe this Wang Lin, to see what manner of beast he is.”

With a flick of his sleeve, the air between them rippled, coalescing into a mirrored surface. Reflected within its depths was Wang Lin, making his way through the labyrinthine rings that encircled the Five Planets.

Meanwhile, within the tower’s ninth and highest chamber, two figures sat in meditative stillness. Both were men of middle age, though the one garbed in a robe of shifting, kaleidoscopic colors possessed an ageless quality. His gaze, alight with an otherworldly gleam, was fixed on the sky beyond the tower walls.

Any who had known him would instantly recognize him as Nado, the man Wang Lin had encountered on Suzaku Planet so long ago.

The passage of years had left no discernible mark on Nado. A faint smile touched his lips as he continued to watch the sky.

“To think, he was but a fledgling Core Formation cultivator then. In these thousand years, he has ascended to such heights…even I am no match for him now.”

“Nor am I,” replied his companion, a handsome man clad in violet silks. “But what does it matter? We are merely the inheritors of this place. Our duty is to safeguard it.”

“Should a true threat arise, we need not even stir. The ancestors slumbering within the higher chambers would awaken and quell it with a thought. But tell me, Nado, do you believe Wang Lin can traverse the Five Elements Grand Array?”

“The Five Elements, perhaps. But without the Nine Revolutions Art, he shall not survive the third transformation! This array was forged by our nine forefathers together; though time has weathered it, it is not so easily overcome. Wang Lin’s cultivation, as I perceive it, is merely at the mid-stage Emptiness Realm.” Nado chuckled softly.

“Then let us observe this spectacle,” the violet-robed man agreed, a matching smile gracing his lips. They turned their gazes back towards the outside, where the fate of Wang Lin would unfold.

Outside the Five Planets, within the swirling bands of colored light, Wang Lin walked with unwavering purpose. The deafening roar of the array reverberated around him, yet left him untouched.

His Ancient God physique was impervious to such trivial magics. As he advanced, the forces of the Five Elements assailed him: raging infernos, blinding sandstorms, tsunamis of wrathful water, the shrieks of a thousand metallic blades, and the snarling advance of primal Wood spirits.

But Wang Lin did not falter. He had come to the Five Planets prepared to face any danger. He would plunge into this dragon’s lair, this tiger’s den.

Here lurked a second variable, a force beyond Tian Yunzi. Wang Lin knew not its true strength, a shadow that hampered his search for his Third Soul.

He came to tear away the veil of this hidden power, to understand its true nature.

Only then could Wang Lin truly be at peace.

He did not delude himself into believing he could destroy it outright. But he possessed the unshakable conviction that, should he choose to leave, none would dare stand in his way.

Without that certainty, he would never have dared to tread this path alone.

With each step, the Five Elements array crumbled and writhed around him, until, with his fourteenth stride, he plunged into the heart of the Five Planets’ outer defenses.

There, amidst the blinding light, the elements shifted. All around Wang Lin, the power of Earth converged.

What he had faced until now was merely the periphery. Before him lay the true trial, the first layer of the Five Elements Array: the Earth Formation.

The moment Wang Lin crossed the threshold, the world dissolved around him. He found himself in a realm of earth alone, a world without sky. Above, where the heavens should have been, hung an inverted landscape of soil and stone.

Particles of earth rained down from the inverted land, like a storm of dust and gravel. And before him, nine vortexes of swirling earth raged between the two planes.

With a roar that shook the very foundations of existence, the nine maelstroms converged upon Wang Lin, their swirling dust coalescing into nine titanic faces. These grotesque visages of earth and sand bellowed with fury as they lunged toward him.

Beneath his feet, the ground trembled, buckling and heaving like a living ocean. Something ancient and monstrous stirred within its depths.

The din of destruction assaulted his ears, but Wang Lin remained unmoved, his gaze cold and unflinching.

“Mere spirits of the Five Elements Array? They are nothing before me!” With a single step, he closed the distance to the closest of the earthen faces. As it roared and lunged to devour him, Wang Lin unleashed a fist of pure, unadulterated power.

With a thunderous crack, the face shattered, scattering a torrent of soil. Without pause, Wang Lin spun and, with a blur, crashed a fist into the second face!
The thunder of defiance echoed through the warped reality as Wang Lin strode nine paces, each ending in a thunderous blow. Nine faces of nightmare dissolved before his might, yet in that twisted domain, the inverted earth above stirred with malevolent life, surging downwards to crush him.

Simultaneously, the ground beneath buckled upwards, a mirror image of the impending doom. In the blink of an eye, these two continents of earth, twin nightmares, slammed together with a deafening roar, engulfing Wang Lin in a prison of stone.

Within the towering Five Elements Pagoda, the black-robed elder and his three cohorts watched with rapt attention, their eyes fixed on the immense, shimmering mirror. As the earth sealed shut, the elder erupted in triumphant laughter.

“The Earth Earthen Bulwark! It cannot be shattered so easily! This Wang Lin underestimates its power. Even for one of the Third Step, breaking this earth is a task to be measured in days!”

“Indeed,” rasped the middle-aged woman, her voice sharp with malice. “This is but the second transformation of the Bulwark. Seven more await! I wager this Wang Lin will be crippled even if he survives!”

“Wang Lin,” she spat, her eyes glinting with hatred and a cruel pleasure, “You consort with Situ Nan! Today, you will pay the price for that heartless rogue!”

The other two stood silently, a disquieting frown furrowing their brows. Something felt amiss, too effortless.

Suddenly, the image within the mirror convulsed, time itself bending and warping. The violent shift silenced the elder’s laughter, extinguishing the woman’s gloating. As understanding dawned, their faces contorted with horror.

The joined lands, fused together in a seamless tomb, resonated with a rhythmic, earth-shattering pulse. A beat, a pause, and then another, as if a titan trapped within was methodically breaking free, fist by agonizing fist.

Cracks spiderwebbed across the surface, spreading with alarming speed until the land fractured, shattered, and exploded outwards. Wang Lin emerged, his expression serene, untouched by the cataclysm. He strode forth from the shattered remains of his prison.

But the horror had only begun. With a gesture of his right hand, a feat beyond comprehension, the shattered earth imploded. Millions of motes of soil swirled around him, a chaotic dance that defied all natural laws. They shrunk, condensed, and finally coalesced, a handful of raw earth resting innocently in the palm of his hand.

This was no mere dirt. It pulsed with a vibrant, concentrated life force, the very spirit of the Earth Earthen Bulwark.

Silence descended upon the four within the tower. The elder gasped, his eyes wide with disbelief. He stared, dumbfounded, as Wang Lin’s fist closed around the handful of earth, as it vanished from sight. He watched as Wang Lin lifted his gaze, his eyes meeting his across the impossible distance. The elder cried out in a strangled voice.

He was not alone. As Wang Lin’s gaze swept over them, the woman and the other two felt their scalps prickle, their instincts screaming. They stumbled backwards in disarray.

“He cannot see us! We are beyond the veil of the array!”

“He… he has claimed the Spirit of Earth!”

On the tenth level of the tower, Nado watched the unfolding events with growing concern.

“Had he simply broken the Bulwark, it would be of little consequence. But to steal the Earth Elemental… indeed, his reputation is well-deserved. He is truly powerful.” The middle-aged man beside him spoke softly.

“It matters not,” Nado growled, a cold fire in his eyes. “Four more trials remain. Four trials followed by the Nine Revolutions. Let us see how he fares then.” Old friendships meant nothing now.

Meanwhile, unseen by any within the Domain, a crimson tear opened in the vast expanse of the Kun Xu Starfield. From the wound in reality stepped a black-haired youth clad in dark robes. He surveyed his surroundings with a joyful smile.

“He is there… I know little of the child’s nature. I will observe him from afar.”