Five Primordial Forces

The City of Penance, the Violet-Bloods' Land of Exile!

The sky was a desolate gray. No sun, no moon, not even a whisper of wind or a wisp of cloud. No falling rain, no drifting snow, no thunder, no lightning – none of the usual weather phenomena. It was as if this world had always existed in this decrepit, despair-inducing state since time immemorial.

Gray-black dust swirled endlessly, dancing over a dark wasteland where several figures lay sprawled in the mud.

*Splish, splash!* Steve patted the mud beside him, opening his dazed eyes. Seeing his surroundings, he immediately lamented, "Too much sand and grime! These barren lands and harsh waters certainly don't nurture beauties, do they?"

A leopard never changes its spots, indeed! Steve watched Du Chen, still unconscious, clutching one arm tightly while his other was wrapped around the waist of an exquisitely beautiful woman, a small siren of artistry. Steve shook his head, sighing again, "Ah, with a beauty in your arms, even these wretched lands might as well be paradise!"

He pushed Du Chen's hand away and squatted beside his brother and Xue Ji, scrutinizing the exceedingly intimate posture of the man and woman. "Heh heh!" The tree seed by Du Chen's hand, the lotus tattoo on his body, and some small trinkets from Water's Embrace Lake that had fallen from Xue Ji… Steve seemed to see none of it, his eyes fixed solely on one major issue…

"Third Brother, you scoundrel!" Steve suddenly burst out cursing, pointing at Du Chen and fuming, "A beauty in your arms, and look at the two of you right now! It's clearly a classic case of hero saving the damsel! Gods above, how can the boss of Saint John City's hooligan gangs have such a dolt for a brother!? In this situation, you should be embracing and kissing her, then letting the beauty wake up first…" He then mimicked a shy maiden's voice, "Oh, why is there an extra tongue in my mouth? Heavens, did my Benefactor accidentally… or intentionally… save me like this? What should I do?!"

Steve was so exasperated by Du Chen's incompetence that he angrily kicked him twice. But those two kicks were enough to rouse Du Chen. He opened his eyes. "Gods!" An absolutely stunning face was right by his lips, her cheek a mere paper-thin distance from his mouth. This state, people usually called a 'cheek kiss'!

Du Chen quickly let go and scrambled up, thinking to himself, *This doesn't count as indulging in female charms, does it?*

"Third Brother's awake?" Steve chuckled, patting Du Chen's shoulder.

"Eldest Brother!?" Du Chen was startled, then exclaimed in surprise, "You've recovered? Wait, I'm still wearing my mask, how did you recognize me!?"

Steve wiggled his hands. "I made that mask myself. How could I not recognize it?"

Du Chen stared at his Eldest Brother in astonishment, speechless.

Steve pursed his lips into a smile, then picked up the tree seed beside them. "This little thing just burst forth with immense power, helping me recover my clarity and… strength! Ha!" He burst into boisterous laughter. "Steve *is* Flaying, and Flaying *is* Steve! What difference does it make!? My brother, my Francis, whom I shall protect!"

Du Chen, momentarily stunned, suddenly roared with laughter too. The two brothers exchanged a mighty chest bump, then burst into maniacal cackles like madmen in that desolate, unknown wasteland!

Suddenly, a flash of black and crimson blade light erupted from Steve's hand, slashing towards Du Chen's throat. Du Chen deftly caught the Flaying Blade between two fingers, chuckling, "Eldest Brother, still playing these games!?"

"Not bad! Tenth-rank peak! Even without a sacred artifact, you now possess Zigurd's strength! And if you use your sacred artifacts, you could fight me to a standstill!"

The two burst into laughter again, a profound sense of brotherhood filling their hearts.

…

After they had their fill of laughter, the two sat unconcernedly in the mud. Du Chen asked, "Eldest Brother, have you figured out what happened? Where are we? And what exactly is that tree seed?"

Flaying looked up at the sky. "Heaven only knows where that tree seed brought us, but it was so terrified by you just now that it fled in panic, unleashing its full power. That power merged seamlessly with mine, allowing me to understand its every secret… It must be the legendary Life Tree Seed!"

"Life Tree Seed!?"

"Exactly. One of the Five Primordial Forces of this world – the seed of the Life Tree!"

"The Five Primordial Forces?" Du Chen frowned. "It seems there are many things you haven't told me before!"

Steve shrugged. "Don't blame me. Glynn's rule was, the greater your ability, the more you'd know. Now, you're finally qualified to learn everything from me…" He lay back in the mud, gazing at the sky. "There are five sacred artifacts in this world, rumored to be the avatars of the five elemental gods, representing the most fundamental powers between heaven and earth! One of them is the Life Tree!"

Du Chen was profoundly shocked. "So the Labyrinth of Life is truly the interior of a colossal tree!?" This tree was enormous! The core of an entire world, a tree? Du Chen was shaken to his very core, an experience unlike any he'd had before!

Steve nodded. "The Life Tree represents the power of the plant element, encompassing both the power of life and the power of The Undead. That seed possesses power from the Life Tree, and it was this very power that just helped me regain my clarity! Its effect was like Glynn suddenly regaining his senses in the Labyrinth of Life and telling you everything about the past. However… the power unleashed by the Life Tree Seed while fleeing for its life was even stronger; it completely healed me!"

Du Chen's spirit soared. With Flaying, or rather, his Eldest Brother, fully recovered, and himself by his side, where in this world could they not go? Aside from Margaret's Water's Embrace Lake and Bonis's lair, was there any place that was forbidden to them!?

Steve continued, "The other four sacred artifacts are: the Essence of Earth, representing the element of earth — its whereabouts are unknown! Then there's the Molten Heart, representing fire — that's what Margaret used to turn you and Arthur into imbeciles… Just imagine, if someone suddenly deciphered the damage caused by the Five Primordial Forces and turned you into a genius, that Old Hag Margaret would surely go mad!" He suddenly paused.

Du Chen couldn't help but ask, "What about the powers representing water and metal?"

Flaying smiled mysteriously. "A small part of the primordial sacred artifact representing water is right around your neck!"

Du Chen was stunned, then glanced at the necklace around his own neck and laughed self-deprecatingly, "So it's the Holy Relic of the Holy Yessar Church, The Weeping Tear!"

Steve nodded. "Water has no fixed form. The Weeping Tear once transformed into an unparalleled divine sword. The necklace around your neck is the 'tears' shed after the Weeping Sword killed!" He sighed languidly. "When Sherine had you learn swordsmanship back then, it was precisely so you'd have a chance to retrieve The Weeping Tear!"

At the mention of Sherine, a flicker of an unidentifiable emotion crossed Steve's eyes, but he quickly moved on. "As for the foremost of the Five Primordial Forces, the sacred artifact representing the metal element, I guarantee you'll be extremely interested once you hear its name…"

After building the suspense to its peak, Steve declared loudly: "The Sacred Artifact Furnace!"

Du Chen shot to his feet. "Could it be that…"

Steve chuckled oddly. "Indeed, there's a saying: all sacred artifacts in the world originate from the Sacred Artifact Furnace, and the combination of the five primordial sacred artifacts is the method to forge sacred artifacts!"

Du Chen gasped in solemn shock. "Then the legend of Charlemagne's Star Tears from back then—that he picked Star Tears from a fruit tree in his own backyard… actually means the Sacred Artifact Furnace created the sacred artifact Star Tears, and then the Life Tree delivered the Star Tears to Charlemagne through its branches and leaves!?"

Steve shrugged. "Who knows? That's just one of hundreds of theories about the origin of sacred artifacts, though only a select few know about *that* particular one!"

Du Chen shook his head. "The Sacred Artifact Furnace must also be missing, otherwise, just that legend of Star Tears would be enough to bring utter annihilation upon its owner's entire clan!"

The two brothers exchanged many more stories. When Ben's death in the Labyrinth was mentioned, Steve sighed somberly.

Du Chen dried the mud from his body. Both brothers' clothes were riddled with holes, scorched by the Fiery Core. Only Xue Ji's attire, protected by Du Chen's ice pillars, remained relatively intact. Steve simply stripped off his clothes, leaving only a pair of shorts. "You know what you needed to know. Now, it's time to figure out how to get home! Don't count on that tree seed; its power is depleted, and it's fallen back into dormancy. It certainly can't help us."

Du Chen tried to summon Dus with his Divine Sense. Though the connection was made, Dus could only vaguely sense their immense distance and was utterly unable to help Du Chen return home! Gazing around, all he saw was a desolate, dusty wasteland, devoid of human presence, or even a single trace of life. The only living being beside the two brothers was the unconscious Xue Ji.

"What about Constantine? And that Green Gourd Beast!?" Du Chen only had two hands; during the Fiery Core's tremors, he could only grab the two he cared about most. Where the Rebellious Dragon and Green Gourd had gone, only the gods knew. Perhaps they'd been left behind in the Labyrinth of Life, or perhaps they'd also arrived in this damned, hellish place!

After a quick check, Du Chen found only two items remaining with him: the tree seed, and, out of professional habit, a small lock — the Secret Lock from the Rebellious Dragon's body — which he'd picked open and kept in his lock-picking kit. The kit was integrated with his belt, which was still intact, so the small lock had fortuitously remained hanging there, spared from destruction!

Du Chen picked up the tree seed and the small lock, then pointed randomly in a direction. "Let's go this way. I hope that 'Goddess of Fate' is decent enough to let us run into another living soul!"

Steve suddenly said, "Wait!" He pointed at Xue Ji. "Are you just going to abandon this girl?"

Du Chen's brow furrowed slightly. *Right, what to do about Xue Ji? Now that they were out of the Labyrinth of Life, this Little Hag was useless, but she had helped him immensely once. Just leaving her in the wasteland would be truly dishonorable! But then again, Xue Ji was also a disciple of Water's Embrace Lake—an enemy!*

A difficult dilemma!

Du Chen sighed. "Fine. Since I saved her life once, I don't mind saving it a second time! We'll worry about what comes next later!"

Steve grinned mischievously. "That's more like it! Heh heh, you were hugging and kissing her just now, weren't you? Trying to shirk responsibility now?" A lecherous, wicked smile, this was Steve's true nature. His words made Du Chen blush fiercely, and he quickly retorted, "Enough! That old hag is already in her thirties…"

Steve was dumbfounded. "Thirties? Gods, who told you that!? Xue Ji is barely twenty, at most!"

Du Chen stared at Xue Ji on his shoulder. "She's… under twenty!?"

Steve nodded vigorously. "Nonsense! The Water's Embrace Divine Beast that saved 'me' and Ben back then said that when Margaret captured Phil, she conveniently snatched a female infant and took her as her ninth personal disciple! That means Xue Ji was still an infant when you were born, barely a year or two older than you! Hmm? Third Brother, look at this…"

Steve suddenly stared at the spot where Xue Ji had collapsed earlier, scrutinizing the mud. He clicked his tongue in wonder, "That Goddess of Fate is quite decent after all!"

Du Chen also looked at the spot in surprise. "Eldest Brother, we actually didn't notice it earlier…"

Steve licked his lips. "Judging by the skin, this is a woman's hand—an absolutely beautiful woman! A beauty's jade hand, untouched by the grime. Most importantly, she's still alive!" This discerning eye was a culmination of Flaying's and Steve's specialized skills, a unique Secret Technique acquired only after flaying countless hides and caressing innumerable jade hands of beauties!

In that patch of mire, a slender hand reached out from the muddy water, its fingertips trembling with the wasteland's wind, as if summoning Du Chen and Steve to rescue her…

Du Chen and Steve crouched beside the hand. Steve raised an eyebrow, smiling, "There's another living person right beside us, yet two Titled Battle Gods like ourselves didn't even notice her. Isn't that amusing!?"

Du Chen condensed a Water Orb and lightly flicked the jade-like, flawless hand at its joint. The beauty's fingers twitched slightly, as if recoiling from the icy water—a physiological response! She was indeed alive! "This woman is extraordinary, or the one who buried her alive is extraordinary!" Could any woman be ordinary if she could evade the notice of two Titled Battle Gods?

"Dig her out?"

"Dig her out!"

Du Chen sent Xue Ji into the Precious Lotus Scripture. The two used their hands like shovels, easily digging through the earth. Following the jade hand downward, they soon uncovered a section of a purple sleeve. On the wrist was a pale gold bracelet, an odd piece: a giant python biting its own tail to form a circle. The python was lifelike, its face ferocious; few women would favor such a 'unique' piece of jewelry.

Digging deeper and deeper, most of the arm was revealed. Steve suddenly drew two sharp breaths. "Such a familiar feminine scent!"

"Eldest Brother, could you have run into an old flame out here in this wilderness?" Du Chen joked.

Steve's expression grew serious. He thought carefully. "Though a woman's scent isn't entirely unique, it's very rarely duplicated! I've definitely smelled this woman's scent somewhere before. Trust me, when it comes to women's fragrances, my nose is better than your butler Harry's!"

On that, Du Chen had no doubt!

Steve's expression suddenly changed. "I know who it is! Dig faster!" With that, he surged his battle qi, his hands moving like a flurry of butterflies among flowers.

Du Chen was about to ask who it was, but Steve had already dug out the woman's arm. However, a section of chain was still bound to her shoulder. If there were no surprises, this woman must have been restrained with shackles all over her body, then buried alive in this desolate, dusty wasteland!

Burying a beauty alive… what a vicious method!

With the shoulder's position confirming the body's orientation, Steve no longer feared injuring her. With a low shout, enveloped in battle qi, he pulled the woman from the earth!

Du Chen glanced over. "Sure enough, an old acquaintance!"