In the ruins of the secluded alley, the aftershocks of the battle and the aura of the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame that incinerated everything had long since dissipated. Only charred earth and a few wisps of faint ash remained, bearing witness to the brief but intense struggle that had occurred not long ago. Fang Hao’s figure had already vanished without a trace.

He did not immediately flee far out of the city as he had previously planned. After killing those three trackers and quickly cleaning up the scene, he did not choose the nearest city gate to leave. Instead, his body twisted like a specter, and he stealthily headed toward an old residential area within Tiangong City that was more complex and relatively crowded.

As he moved swiftly, his mind raced. The ambush just now was clean and efficient, leaving no survivors, and the bodies were disposed of very thoroughly. For a short time, that so-called Elder Mo shouldn’t be able to immediately lock onto his position. However, since the opponent was an Elder of the Tiangong Alliance with deep-rooted influence in Tiangong City, it was only a matter of time before he mobilized people to search the entire city or used some special means to track him. Leaving the city now might seem safe, but it could actually play right into the opponent’s hands—the outskirts were desolate, making it easier for high-level Cultivators to intercept and hunt him down.

"The most dangerous place might be the safest place." Fang Hao’s gaze was calm. He changed his mind and decided to stay in Tiangong City for the time being. Not just to avoid potential risks, but also because after killing that gloomy middle-aged Golden Core Cultivator, he had found an unremarkable Jade Slip in his Storage bag. In the Jade Slip, besides recording some trivial matters of Tiangong City and his personal Cultivation insights, a piece of news was mentioned at the end: In five days, Tiangong Pavilion will collaborate with several major merchant houses like the Ten Thousand Treasures Tower and Dan Ding Pavilion to hold a decennial grand auction at the "Tiangong Auction House" in the center of Tiangong City! It was said that the scale of this auction would be extremely high, with many rare Heaven And Earth Treasures, Cultivation Techniques, secret arts, high-level Magical Artifacts, and Medicinal Pills appearing. There might even be treasures that help with forming a Nascent Soul!

This news stirred Fang Hao’s heart. He had yet to find the "ten thousand year ironwood heart," and he had no leads on the nascent soul pill formula or its main ingredients. This decennial grand auction in Tiangong City was undoubtedly an excellent opportunity! Although the risk was great and Elder Mo and his Tiangong Alliance would likely participate or even set a trap, the auction would have a diverse crowd and many participants, making it easier to fish in troubled waters. Moreover, the possibility of a "ten thousand year ironwood heart" or other rare treasures appearing at the auction was much higher than him searching blindly.

"Wealth is found in danger." Fang Hao took a deep breath and made a decision. He would stay in Tiangong City and wait for the auction in five days! However, he had to change his identity and find an absolutely safe and inconspicuous hiding place.

Recalling the terrain he observed when entering the city and some information he heard from the innkeeper and the Tiangong Pavilion manager, he quickly locked onto an area—the Old Workshop District.

The Old Workshop District was located on the shaded side of the giant mountain of Tiangong City. The terrain was low, and the buildings were dense and cluttered, mostly consisting of ancient low stone houses, workshops, and warehouses. Most of the people living here were low-level Loose Cultivators, Artifact Refining Apprentices, or Mortals engaged in the lowest level of work. The environment was noisy, the Spiritual Qi was thin, all sorts of people were mixed together, and management was relatively lax. More importantly, this place was close to Tiangong City’s massive underground drainage and abandoned mine tunnel System, with complex terrain that was easy for hiding and moving around.

Fang Hao restrained all his aura, suppressed his cultivation to the Late Foundation Establishment Stage, and changed into an unremarkable grey coarse cloth robe. He also slightly altered his walking posture and the fine contours of his facial muscles (with his current Physical Body control, this was easy to achieve), making himself look like an ordinary-looking low-level Loose Cultivator struggling for a living. Then, he silently blended into the noisy and bustling crowd of the Old Workshop District.

He didn’t go to rent any formal inn or Immortal Cave, as that would be too easy to leave a trail. Deep within the Old Workshop District, at the end of a dirty alley piled with abandoned Ore and Artifact Refining waste, he found a half-collapsed stone house that had long been uninhabited. The original owner of the stone house might have been a failed Artifact Refining Apprentice, as some charred slag and broken tools still remained inside. The Spiritual Qi here was pitifully thin, and the surroundings were mostly filled with similarly destitute residents, so no one paid any attention.

Fang Hao set up several layers of simple but effective concealment and warning Restrictions around the stone house, then entered and cleared a clean spot to sit cross-legged.

He did not immediately begin processing the "void stone" or attempt to repair the golden puppet. The priority was healing and recovery. Although the previous battle was short, he had used his full strength to end it quickly. Especially the final activation of the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame to incinerate the Ghost Claw and kill that gloomy middle-aged man seemed easy but was actually quite taxing. His control over the new spirit fire was not yet proficient, and the mental energy and spiritual power consumed were far beyond his expectations. Furthermore, despite his powerful Physical Body, taking the backlash from the opponent’s Life-bound Magical Artifact head-on inevitably caused his blood and Qi to churn.

He took out several Medicinal Pills for recovering spiritual power and healing, swallowed them, closed his eyes to concentrate, and circulated the Chaos Derivation Art. The greyish Chaos Spiritual Power flowed slowly through his Meridians, nourishing the slightly damaged Meridians and calming the churning blood and Qi. Within his Dantian, the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame burned quietly. As the spiritual power circulated, wisps of scorching and sharp energy merged into the spiritual power, significantly speeding up the recovery of his spiritual power.

Several hours later, Fang Hao slowly opened his eyes. A sharp light flashed through his gaze and vanished. His aura had returned to its Peak state, and because of the life-and-death struggle just now and the use of the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame, his control over his own power had even improved slightly.

"Next, it’s your turn." With a thought, Fang Hao took out that grey-looking "void stone" from his Storage Ring.

He extended his right hand, palm upward, and with a slight movement of his mind, a cluster of flame the size of a fist, with a dark gold core and blazing white outer flame, emerged out of thin air and burned quietly. It was precisely the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame.

As soon as this fire appeared, the temperature in the stone house rose sharply, and even the air distorted slightly. Fang Hao carefully controlled the temperature and range of the flame, holding the "void stone" in his left hand while slowly bringing the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame in his right hand closer.

Chiss—!

The moment the blazing white flame touched the surface of the stone, that thick, hard, unknown grey stone skin encountered its nemesis, rapidly softening and melting into wisps of green smoke. This stone skin seemed to have the effect of isolating Divine Sense and Spiritual Qi fluctuations, but under the burning of the Earthly Fiend Golden Flame, which merged the sharp law-breaking characteristics of the soldier fiend spirit fire, it was like paper.

Fang Hao concentrated fully, controlling the flame like the most precise carving knife, peeling away the stone skin bit by bit. He didn’t dare use too much heat, fearing he might damage the "void crystal" that might exist inside.

As the stone skin was peeled away layer by layer, gradually, a speck of silver-grey light, flowing like mercury and emitting weak but clear spatial fluctuations, projected out from inside the stone.

Fang Hao was delighted, and his movements became even more careful. Finally, when the last bit of stone skin was peeled away, a strange crystal about the size of an egg, entirely silver-grey, semi-transparent, and appearing to have countless fine starlight flowing inside, appeared in his palm. The crystal was cold to the touch yet seemed to have no actual weight. Within it, faint spatial ripples rippled out. This was exactly the core material for refining spatial Magical Artifacts, setting up teleportation arrays, and even repairing certain high-level Puppets involving spatial power (like the golden puppet)—the void crystal!