"What's the idea?"

Qin Yuzhi watched as Li Mo raised a finger, looking utterly confident. She couldn’t help but feel skeptical—she, with all her intelligence, couldn’t come up with a solution, yet this guy had one after just a moment’s thought?

This made her, the dignified Divine Summoning Sect Leader, seem rather unimpressive, didn’t it?

Li Mo smirked slightly. "I’ve got something amazing. Once you taste it, you’ll never forget it—you’ll be hooked for life..."

"The only problem is, I can’t produce much of it alone. I’ll need Elder Xue’s help."

"!"

Qin Yuzhi leaned back slightly.

Why did she suddenly feel like little Li was growing devil horns on his head?

"Xiao Mo..."

"Ahem, during official discussions, address me by my title."

"Right, Sect Leader Li. As seasoned sect leaders know..."

Qin Yuzhi’s expression turned serious.

"If the upper beam is crooked, the lower beam will easily follow. You’re still young, prone to rushing for quick results..."

"?"

"I know you’re eager, but hear me out first. Remember the Martial Refining Hall I told you about? Their leader back then was also a prodigious genius... until he got hooked on a certain substance..."

Li Mo blurted out, "Divine Power Powder?"

"How did you know?" Qin Yuzhi was stunned.

"Well... actually, the Martial Refining Hall no longer exists. The Demon Summoning Sect only has the Blood Refining Hall now."

"???"

Sect Leader Qin’s eyes went blank, her mouth slightly agape as drool nearly trickled out.

After a long silence, her round face crumpled into dismay.

She had wanted to boast about her achievements in managing the sect—like cracking down on forbidden substances—but now it seemed she hadn’t accomplished anything at all.

Seeing her deflated expression, Li Mo comforted her, "We can start fresh! Let’s build the Myriad Phenomena Immortal Sect together—bigger and stronger! Glory awaits!"

"No." Qin Yuzhi shook her head.

"Why not?"

"That’s illegal. How could we do such things?"

"..."

Li Mo was torn between laughter and tears.

The current demonic cultivators probably never imagined their former sect leader was this law-abiding.

"You eat that stuff every day yourself. What’s illegal about it?"

"Huh?"

"MSG and chicken bouillon. You devour it with every meal, even complaining that you couldn’t stomach food in the Southern Border without it."

Li Mo pulled out two small jars, one filled with white powder, the other with pale yellow.

Qin Yuzhi opened them and took a taste. Her eyes lit up—it was the familiar umami flavor.

"So... you’re talking about seasoning?"

"Exactly. You can’t go a meal without it, right? Saying you’re addicted to it isn’t an exaggeration."

"...Fair point." Qin Yuzhi found herself unable to argue.

Li Mo added, "By the way, Sect Leader Qin, since you can enter dreams, can you recreate the taste of food in them?"

"Hmph, you underestimate me. Pulling an entire city into a dream feast is child’s play for me."

Qin Yuzhi perked up, her enthusiasm reignited.

"Then the advertising is all yours! I’ll go find Elder Xue and see if we can reverse-engineer the MSG and chicken bouillon formulas."

"Ad... advertising?"

With that settled, Li Mo headed to Dan Ding Peak. Getting these two seasonings onto the dining tables of the Southern Border’s masses wasn’t the issue—money was no object.

The real challenge was the formula. Once they had that, mass production would be a breeze.

Hmm...

Though he couldn’t figure it out himself. He never understood how protagonists in novels knew everything—it wasn’t like schools taught this stuff.

At Dan Ding Peak, things went smoother than expected.

Elder Xue wasn’t around, but his help wasn’t needed. Senior Brother Xiaobao took one taste and scribbled down the ingredient list and even the production method—like a walking spectrometer.

All it cost Li Mo was a few lollipop pills.

......

Meanwhile.

In the Ancestral Hall of Qingyuan's Main Peak, Shangguan Wencang sat with the sect’s sole Elder Supreme, both wearing grave expressions.

Well, perhaps not the sole Elder Supreme anymore—but likely the only reliable one...

"Little Bing, try again."

"When you unlocked the Seven Divine Observing Apertures, the Bronze Tree resonated."

"It must... be connected to you."

Though just a fragment.

It was, after all, a true Heavenly Fate Artifact.

Ying Bing lowered her gaze to the ancient, intricately crafted bronze tree, sensing an inexplicable familiarity.

Her fragmented Heavenly Phoenix Domain flickered to life, linking with the stars adorning the divine tree.

Strands of divine intent gathered like leaves upon its branches.

Light swirled before her eyes, coalescing into a vision—a vast starry sky stretched above an endless ancient city, at whose center stood a colossal divine tree.

Dark golden veins pulsed along its trunk, roots stretching beyond sight, drawing power from the masses.

Its branches seemed to extend invisible chains, binding unseen entities in realms unknown.

Was that the clinking of chains... or rustling leaves in the celestial winds?

The complete Bronze Divine Tree!

Last time she communed with it, she hadn’t seen this vision. What triggered the change... was it the Heavenly Phoenix Domain?

Not just the tree—the two figures playing chess beneath it now appeared vividly clear.

One was Ying Huang.

Her image differed from the Jade Phoenix Shrine’s depictions. Now clad in a majestic black cloak, her features sharper, her waterfall of hair loose, she exuded serene authority—mirrored in her deliberate moves.

Her opponent, in yellow robes, held white pieces with half-lidded eyes, as if dozing.

Ying Huang spoke: "Yun Meng, you won’t find the answer to this game even in your dreams."

The man—Yun Mengxian—startled awake, accidentally scattering the board.

"Ah? Oh, my apologies. Nodded off mid-thought."

"Is this what you meant by ‘victory lies beyond the board’?"

Ying Huang’s connection to the Bronze Tree severed, her demeanor softening into something more... human.

Yun Mengxian, unabashed, grinned. "How can a board mirror the vast Nine Heavens and Ten Earths? Speaking of which, don’t you possess the Heavenly Phoenix Domain, housing countless souls?"

"Why not use them as pieces, manifest a true cosmic game, and let me try again?"

Clearly.

This attempt failed.

Otherwise, he wouldn’t have later been trapped by Qin Yuzhi in the Heavenly Phoenix Domain, unable to escape even after tearing it apart.

Moments later, Yun Mengxian was ejected, landing hard on his rear, frustration plain:

"How is the Celestial City’s puzzle even more unsolvable than this accursed game...?"

Yet as he spoke, a smile returned to his face. "If the peace of the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands could endure forever, as meticulously calculated in your chess game, that wouldn’t be so bad."

Ying Huang shook her head. "You’re right about one thing—the masses are alive, but the chessboard is lifeless. From the moment the Great Shang was founded, it began its march toward its own demise."

Yun Mengxian murmured, "Does that mean... we are the same?"

"But dreams will endure."

Ying Huang’s gaze seemed to pierce through endless time, crossing the ages to look upon the one who would come after.

She gently raised her finger, and the shattered bronze divine tree, like embers rekindled from dead ashes, erupted with a light fierce enough to consume itself. The divine avian spirits perched upon its branches dissolved into starlight and vanished.

Fragments peeled away from the broken tree, as though it were being reborn.

With a faint smile, she said,

"I hope that when you inherit this power, you will not be ruled by it—that you will forge your own path."