Watching the tidal giant waves formed by the clash of the origin divine sea and the phoenix strange beast, Xue Tu stood dumbfounded. He felt that Zhang Ruochen’s figure at this moment looked outstanding and majestic. It even made him, a true god, feel convinced in his heart.
Too strong!
This was the legendary dao envoy?
The spokesperson of the eternal origin in the mortal dust?
Xue Tu suddenly thought that as a god spirit, one should have pursuits and goals, to seize mysteries, become a dao envoy, become a dao lord god. But thinking of how he still struggled for a single supreme saint artifact, his mood plunged to the bottom at once.
The Yan Luo clan cultivators, as long as they remained conscious, all felt shocked by the power Zhang Ruochen unleashed. They realised that the most brilliant talent of this era had truly soared into the nine heavens. He now held the right to influence this great age.
With such power, which force dared to slight him?
“This is the power of an origin envoy?”
Yan Wushen’s eyes grew dazed. He sighed softly.
In the Origin Divine Temple, he too gained part of the origin mystery. But not one percent. He still lagged some distance from origin envoy. And this gap in origin mystery quantity had become the chasm between his and Zhang Ruochen’s combat powers.
But Yan Wushen was no ordinary figure after all. His mind soon calmed.
For he knew one truth well. In the end, god spirits competed on cultivation and mental will. Holding origin envoy status merely let one walk ahead for now.
Chi Yao knew full well that even as an origin envoy, Zhang Ruochen had just grasped this power. The dragon-form strange beast and phoenix strange beast both proved terribly strong. Not something he could yet match.
Thus, she used divine qi to roll up the Yan Luo clan cultivators. She rushed fast into the Heavenly Gate’s glassy light curtain.
Being repelled by a tiny human filled the phoenix strange beast with rage. Feathers on its body burned with black flames. One metal-like claw reached straight for Zhang Ruochen.
Zhang Ruochen clapped his hands together. Mental power released fully. It controlled the origin mystery and origin rules.
“Splash!”
A pure white flawless origin divine lotus bloomed in mid-air.
The flower like a world, vast and hazy.
“Boom!”
The phoenix claw fell. It clashed with the origin divine lotus. At once, two utterly different powers, black and white, gushed outward. They shook the Heavenly Gate’s glassy light curtain till it trembled.
Zhang Ruochen seized the chance. With the force, he flew into the Heavenly Gate.
The phoenix strange beast and the dragon-form strange beast that caught up a step later shrank their bodies. They turned into two giants tens of metres tall. But one had a dragon head, the other a phoenix head.
They clearly feared the Heavenly Gate much. They hesitated, unsure whether to chase in.
“Gurgle!”
A strange cry came.
The huge skull head of that ghost-like strange beast hung in a dense black ghost cloud. It appeared above the phoenix strange beast and dragon-form strange beast.
The Abyss of Darkness held strict hierarchy.
The phoenix strange beast and dragon-form strange beast knelt on one knee at once. They saluted the skull head.
“Whoosh!”
Something beyond the phoenix strange beast and dragon-form strange beast’s expectations happened. A yin wind wrapped around them. Their bodies lost control. They flew toward the ghost-like strange beast’s mouth.
“Roar!”
“Clang clang!”
Dragon roars and phoenix cries rang without stop.
The phoenix strange beast and dragon-form strange beast each used their methods. They showed true forms, spat divine fire, struggled hard, and resisted the skull head.
But moments later, they still got swallowed into the skull head’s mouth. In the instant of entry, under the ghost-like strange beast’s powerful divine force squeeze, their dragon-phoenix divine bodies burst apart. They turned into two clumps of black blood qi.
Little Black hid a wan li from the Heavenly Gate. It scared till the cat fur on its head stood straight, like a hedgehog’s quills.
“Too savage. It even devours its own kind. No humanity! No, they are not the same kind. It is not human either. But too strong. One mouth swallows dragon and phoenix. No wonder back then, even the Five Purity Sect could not hold one ghost-like strange beast.”
Little Black reached near the Heavenly Gate long ago. If not for the dragon-phoenix strange beasts, it would have rushed up to join Zhang Ruochen and the others.
Farther off, other god spirits hid in the shadows and saw this scene. No help for it. The dragon-phoenix strange beasts and skull head proved too huge. One mouth could hold hundreds or thousands of great mountains.
That ghost-like strange beast did not chase into the Heavenly Gate. It turned into a ghost cloud and vanished into the darkness.
Little Black lay prone on the ground for a long time. It felt like it turned into a real cat. Sure the ghost-like strange beast left, only then did it slowly stand. It rushed toward the Heavenly Gate.
It recognised those two heavenly pillars long ago. They were the Heavenly Gate of old.
With the Heavenly Gate here, inside the Heavenly Gate, perhaps relics of the ancient Saint Realm lay.
…
Below the Heavenly Gate, saint light shone. Star cores sparkled. They lit the sky blue.
But entering the Heavenly Gate showed another scene altogether.
Before them stood an ancient and odd huge building. Taller than the two heavenly pillars. It gave off a weathered aura, carrying a primordial ancient charm.
On the building, horns hundreds of metres long served as flying eaves and beams. Xue Tu recognised them. They were the single horns of an extinct ancient divine beast.
A thousand-li long divine dragon bone lay across the building’s third level. Even now, the bone gave off thick evil qi.
A god stone ground into a pillar propped the building’s main beam.
That pillar alone proved priceless.
Xue Tu rushed up. But Zhang Ruochen held him back hard.
This place proved too eerie. Such a huge building, no top in sight, no edge visible. In Zhang Ruochen’s eyes, only the Truth Divine Temple and Fate Divine Temple could compare. Truly too strange.
If that god stone pillar proved so easy to take, Yin Xue Tian and Yan Huanyu who came here before would have taken it long ago. How could it still stand?
Just as Zhang Ruochen and the others observed the surroundings, a supreme realm elder with weaker mental power showed a mesmerised look on his face. Some dazed, he walked slowly toward the huge building ahead.
Yan Wushen barked at once. “Come back!”
As he moved to act and pull him back, that supreme realm elder’s body smoked black. The black smoke grew thicker and thicker. At last, it turned into a charred corpse that fell to the ground.
A supreme realm great saint died in an instant.
No one present even knew what happened just now. What killed him?
Xue Tu, who wore a resentful wife’s face and felt Zhang Ruochen hindered his wealth, saw this. He drew a sharp breath at once. His throat bobbed. He stepped back a bit.
“What happened? What just occurred?”
“Why did Elder Meng die so suddenly? A curse?”
“Power of time?”
“This place too eerie. Elder Meng could not walk forward for no reason. Likely fell to an illusion.”
…
At this time, a voice came from behind. It said, “Not a curse. Not time power. Not an illusion. It is witchcraft!”
The crowd turned back.
Little Black crossed the Heavenly Gate and walked in. In black robe and clothes, hood on head, utterly cool. It strode forward. “You lot of shallow-sighted cultivators, did you not recognise the building before you is the Witch Temple recorded in the Ancient Witch Full Book?”
Then, Little Black reached the charred corpse’s side. It said, “This comes from black witchcraft. Struck by this witchcraft, no matter how high your cultivation, how thick your blood qi, in the shortest time, life withers, blood qi drains away.”
Xue Tu said, “In the ancient underworld, heaven and earth rules changed. The universe no longer suits witchcraft cultivation. Witch dao cultivators struggle to achieve much. Who could kill a supreme realm great saint?”
Yan Ting said, “Right! Witch dao vanished into history’s river in the ancient underworld, just like qi practitioners.”
“What do you know? This emperor read ten thousand scrolls, travelled ten thousand li. The knowledge I hold, how can you young ones compare?”
Then, Little Black stretched a hand and pointed to the nine bronze cauldrons below the distant ancient building.
The bronze cauldrons stood ten thousand metres high, huge as mountains.
Thick green rust layered the cauldrons, covering the original patterns on them. But still, one could see each bronze cauldron held a statue. Human form, or half-human half-beast.
Just the rust too deep, unclear to see.
Little Black said, “These are the legendary Nine Cauldrons, forged by the nine great ancestral witches. The Nine Cauldrons suppressed the world, placed in the universe’s nine great directions. With the great calamity from ancient end to ancient underworld start, the Witch Temple collapsed. The Nine Cauldrons vanished from the world. Witch dao fell utterly, no longer a match for qi practitioners.”
Mention of the “Nine Cauldrons” shook every cultivator’s mind.
The Nine Cauldrons held too great a fame. In the Heavenly Court’s various eternal great worlds and the hell ten clans, legends lingered. True supreme divine artifacts of the universe.
In ancient times, countless heaven-level powerhouses searched records, spent lifetimes seeking the Nine Cauldrons’ whereabouts.
Who gains the Nine Cauldrons commands the world. Ten thousand clans obey. Heaven-level ones bow.
Xue Tu refused to believe the Nine Cauldrons before him were the legendary ones. He bickered with Little Black. “If you say the Witch Temple collapsed, how does it appear here?”
Little Black glared. It said, “How many Yuan Hui passed since the ancient underworld? The Witch Temple’s collapse is an accepted legend, true. But legends not always fact. When the true Witch Temple stands before you, will you still believe the legend? Seeing is believing, hearing is deceiving. You do not even grasp that. How did you cultivate to god realm?”
“Watch your words. Show respect.” Yan Ting said.
Little Black bared its teeth. Too lazy to mind her.
The crowd believed some now. For the Nine Cauldrons and ancient building gave off auras ancient beyond words. Not things from the last ten million years.
This stirred hot blood!
If word spread, even god venerable level existences might rush to the ancient desolate ruined city in person.
Zhang Ruochen’s gaze fixed on one bronze cauldron. He found its shape somewhat like the Zhang family’s ancestral divine artifact, the Jade Emperor Cauldron. But only the outline similar. Other parts differed vastly. Even the number of cauldron legs and ears varied.
All cultivators, including Chi Yao, Xue Tu, Yan Wushen, observed the Nine Cauldrons. They itched to draw near.
But that supreme realm elder’s eerie death made them cautious. None dared approach in true form.
Zhang Ruochen’s mindset stayed even. He scarce believed the true Nine Cauldrons would lie here so casually. He asked Little Black, “When you came in just now, did you see a dragon-form strange beast and a phoenix-form strange beast?”
“Saw them. This emperor beat them off already!”
Little Black waved lightly. As if no big deal.
Zhang Ruochen stared at it.
Little Black grew impatient. It said, “What look is that? Even if you doubt this emperor’s strength, you should trust the Ice Emperor’s cultivation. How could this emperor hold only one Ice Soul Chill Pearl? Besides, if this emperor did not beat them off, how could I enter?”
It raised its voice on purpose. So the Yan Luo clan cultivators and Xue Tu heard.
Xue Tu’s face truly changed a bit. In his heart, he sighed darkly. “Disciple and own son’s treatment differ indeed. If I were the God Venerable of Death’s direct son, I could gain such strong trump cards too. Regret not born in a god venerable’s house!”
