**The Twelfth Scroll of the Immortal Awl, the Tenth Sun of the Immortal Gang, Chapter 1849: Elixir of the Elixir Sea!**

The woman held a compass, and with each sigil she wove, it blurred, the very threads of time within seeming to unravel. A glimpse threatened to emerge – a fleeting echo of the moment Wang Lin descended, a spectral intruder burrowing into a mortal’s ear to seize control of his mind.

At this moment, Wang Lin’s chosen host stood a thousand paces from the woman. With a sudden spark in his borrowed eyes, the possessed man surged forward, bypassing his comrades. They turned, startled, as he planted himself behind the leader – a middle-aged man whose power radiated with the strength of an Early Stage Emptiness Nirvana cultivator.

The leader sensed the shift, turning to investigate, but before he could, the possessed man unleashed a tendril of smokelike energy from his brow, piercing the leader’s eyes. The man shuddered, his eyes reflecting a brief inner struggle, but then, icy calm descended.

Simultaneously, the woman at the compass faltered. The device trembled violently in her hands, teetering on the edge of revealing Wang Lin’s deception when the leader, now a puppet of smoke, moved with unnatural speed toward the woman, shouting, “I discovered a drop of black fluid within the sea, its nature unknown!” He launched the droplet forward.

The black liquid exuded an overwhelming aura of origin. The woman gasped as the droplet materialized before her.

“The Universal Purification Draught!” she exclaimed, her eyes wide with shock.

Seizing the opportunity, Wang Lin’s puppet advanced, now within a hundred paces of the woman. But as he closed the gap, the three great banners that guarded the perimeter shuddered, emitting a chorus of ominous howls. The compass in the woman’s hand snapped into focus, revealing the truth – the moment Wang Lin emerged from the mist and infiltrated the mind of the unsuspecting cultivator!

“Stop!” The woman shrieked, recoiling in horror as the pale youth behind her blanched.

“Origin Dispersal!” The possessed man roared, his body exploding in a surge of power. The tendril of smoke coalesced into Wang Lin.

The black liquid, previously launched toward the woman, detonated, engulfing the area in a viscous, inky darkness. Those hundreds of cultivators who had been meditating were caught in its embrace. Their agonizing screams were cut short as their bodies corroded into black pools. Even the Green Devil cultivators fell victim, dissolving before they could flee.

A savage roar erupted from beside Wang Lin. Yi Si, armless and monstrous, materialized, lunging for the three great banners. With a deafening crash, he shattered one, then turned his fury on the remaining two!

All this unfolded in the time it took the woman to scream, “Stop!”

Wang Lin surged forward, closing the hundred paces in a heartbeat. As the woman and youth retreated, and as recognition dawned in the youth’s eyes, Wang Lin raised his hand toward them.

“Bind!”

The word resonated with power, countless threads of energy ensnaring the bodies of the woman and the youth. They froze, suspended in place.

The youth’s terror hardened into a mask of frozen horror, the woman’s hand, reaching for the compass, halted mere inches away.

Wang Lin snatched the compass from the woman’s grasp. Without an ounce of pity, he slammed his palm into her brow.

Her body detonated in a spray of blood mist. With a flick of his sleeve, Wang Lin directed the mist at the youth, engulfing him. In a flash of crimson, the Blood Sword followed, seeking to claim the youth’s head.

At that very moment, the final two banners were reduced to splinters by Yi Si.

The inky darkness contracted, shrinking to a single black droplet that Wang Lin swallowed whole.

It was finished. Hundreds lay dead, the woman and the Zhao youth reduced to specters, and the three great banners were destroyed.

Wang Lin, his face pale, retrieved Yi Si and vanished into the depths of the sea.

As he swam, he channeled his spiritual sense into the compass, erasing its existing enchantments with the raw power of his prohibition source. The compass was now his.

Where others would have failed, Wang Lin’s mastery of the prohibition source allowed him to succeed. Now possessing the compass, he possessed the keys to the array that veiled the Elixir Sea. He studied it, his eyes gleaming as he spotted several points of green light, one shining brighter than the rest!
The remaining emerald sparks danced solely above the waves, betraying that the one weaving sky-magic found the ocean’s depths inhospitable to his art.

Gazing upon the blinding green lights, a killing intent sparked within Wang Lin’s eyes.

“Yun Kong,” he breathed, his voice a silken threat, “You are next to fall!” With a flicker, Wang Lin merged with the restrictive array itself, vanishing in the blink of an eye. He reappeared at the heart of the Dan Sea’s central domain.

No sooner had he materialized than he felt the surrounding waters surge and churn with brutal force. The sea writhed around him, threatening to drag him into its chaotic embrace.

He glanced down at his compass. Yun Kong was now within striking distance. Yet, Wang Lin paused, his expression shifting as he observed the violently roiling sea.

“Perhaps,” he murmured, a thoughtful darkness creeping into his eyes, “perhaps I need not forfeit the thirty million Dao Souls after all…” Instead of pressing forward, Wang Lin descended, plunging into the abyss and cloaking himself in the deep’s concealing shadows.

The Dan Sea was now a tempestuous expanse, its surface shattered by the roar of colossal waves. Nine gargantuan whirlpools spun in furious concert, eight encircling the ninth, a monstrous vortex at the sea’s core.

The central vortex spun with ever-increasing speed, drawing the surrounding eight into its infernal dance. Soon, the outer whirlpools, burdened by the weight of churning seawater, began to rise, circling the central vortex in a horrifyingly synchronized ballet of destruction.

Deep within the eye of the ninth vortex, Yun Kong sat in meditative posture, his face bearing the pallor of exertion. His hands moved ceaselessly, weaving arcane hand seals.

“Legends speak of the Dan Sea being born from the fall of a celestial elixir,” Yun Kong murmured, his eyes glinting with feverish zeal. “But in truth, only half of the elixir landed here!” His right hand shot out, fingers grasping at the very fabric of the ocean.

“Dan Sea, CONGEAL!” With a cataclysmic boom, the surrounding vortices spun faster, their rotation intensifying into a desperate, coalescing force. As the water began to thin, subtle tendrils of celestial energy began to emanate, spreading like a promise through the air.

The Dan Sea had become a vast basin, a crucible of swirling power. At its heart, the immense vortex churned, while above, tens of thousands of Green Devil Continent cultivators watched with unwavering focus, their faces etched with solemn anticipation.

They waited for Yun Kong to conjure the half-elixir, the key to shattering the barriers of the Sky Bull Continent!

Wang Lin remained hidden beneath the vortex, a silent predator patiently biding his time. He, too, waited for the instant Yun Kong unleashed the celestial elixir, ready to unleash his fury.

Time trickled onward. Yun Kong was utterly consumed by his task, oblivious to the world beyond the vortex. The thousands of cultivators above, too, were completely fixated on Yun Kong, convinced that the Dan Sea, scoured clean by their prior incursions, held no remaining Sky Bull Continent resistance.

Furthermore, with the protective array in place, they had no cause for concern.

Even now, no one noticed the shattered banners, the stolen compass! All eyes were drawn to Yun Kong, for nothing could compare to witnessing one of the Four Prodigies, the esteemed Yun Kong, refine the Dan Sea and conjure a celestial elixir.

Not even Yun Kong himself considered the possibility of Wang Lin’s return!

He remained in the heart of the ninth vortex, his face a mask of unwavering concentration. His fingers danced through the seals, and with another gesture, the swirling vortex, with a resounding echo, contracted violently, shrinking from boundless expanse to a mere hundred thousand fathoms!

The vast Dan Sea, in that single moment, was being refined into a hundred-thousand-fathom vortex. The sight galvanized the Green Devil Continent cultivators, filling them with renewed zeal.

A fleeting smile touched Yun Kong’s lips. He inhaled deeply, then threw his head back and roared, unleashing the totality of his cultivation. Though his exact level remained inscrutable, his eruption of power filled the air with the unmistakable presence of countless blades, swirling like a storm.

A profound sword intent enveloped everything!

“My master sent me here to refine the Dan Sea’s elixir,” Yun Kong thought, his eyes blazing with ambition, “to elevate my name above the other three Prodigies and, as the foremost talent of Eastern Continent, earn the right to enter the Ancestral Temple in the Imperial City!” His eyes flashed, and the hundred-thousand-fathom vortex pulsed, shrinking again, to fifty thousand, then to a mere thirty thousand fathoms!

Seen from above, the Dan Sea was now reduced to a circle of swirling water, a mere thirty thousand fathoms in diameter. The rest of the seabed was exposed, revealing a landscape of seaweed and coral, littered with the corpses of countless sea creatures, their bodies exploding in a gory display of sacrifice!