Centred on the Heaven-Sacrificing Bronze Cauldron, the stability of the surrounding space had increased by an unknown multiple. Even the divine power of a Great God could not shatter it.
The space of the Heavenly Court and the Destiny Divine Domain was far less stable than this.
All the spatial veins between heaven and earth now fully manifested, like threads or wisps of silk, extending all the way into the distant darkness.
“It’s over. There’s no escape!”
The old yellow ox had already fled hundreds of thousands of miles away, yet it remained pinned in place within the space, its body unable to move, its two ox eyes bulging wide.
It was as though an invisible force had frozen it solid.
The confinement worked from inside to outside and outside to inside. Every inch of flesh, every drop of blood, even the soul itself, was included without exception.
No matter how powerful a cultivator might be, they still existed within space.
“The Nine Cauldrons? The Universe Cauldron?”
Zhang Ruochen’s attainment in the Path of Space was already extremely high, so he naturally sensed the changes. A surge of excitement rose in his heart, but he quickly calmed it.
If he could not suppress the demon god inside the cauldron, he would lose not only the Universe Cauldron but his very life.
Gradually, the interior of the cauldron grew quiet.
Zhang Ruochen felt puzzled and thought to himself, “Is the legendary Universe Cauldron truly this monstrous in power? It actually suppressed her!”
Without time to consider anything else, he split off countless threads of spiritual force and continued to lay down seals.
This time, the inscriptions covered the entire bronze cauldron.
Inside the cauldron’s space.
A river of blood surged from the brow of the pink skeleton, flowing along the bones and spreading into a net-like pattern, just like human blood vessels.
As the blood fused with the bones, the corpse-driving inscriptions Zhang Ruochen had carved on her body faded away one by one.
The aura radiating from her grew ever stronger.
Yet Zhang Ruochen, standing outside the cauldron, sensed nothing. He laid down ninety-nine seals in succession before finally stopping to study the Universe Cauldron’s effect on space.
“It can actually reveal the spatial veins with such clarity.”
Zhang Ruochen observed the flow of the surrounding spatial veins, discerned some clues, and his eyes grew brighter. He murmured, “If the Sword Realm truly exists, it must lie where the spatial veins converge. With this cauldron, my chances of finding the Sword Realm have increased further.”
He withdrew his divine qi into his body, and the glow of the Universe Cauldron gradually dimmed.
The interior remained utterly silent and perfectly calm.
The old yellow ox regained its freedom of movement, returned, and stared at the Universe Cauldron. It asked, “Zhang Ruochen, though I am your disciple, I must still remind you that a person should walk the righteous path. A melon twisted by force is not sweet.”
Zhang Ruochen was deeply wary of the demon god inside the cauldron, his nerves stretched tight. He had not expected Niu Jianqiang to suddenly say something so completely out of place.
The old yellow ox’s eyes held a trace of mockery. It continued, “Don’t think I didn’t know. I heard a woman’s voice from inside earlier. That’s going too far. Yes, you, Zhang Ruochen, have always been dissolute, but even if the woman wouldn’t listen to you, there was no need to put her inside the cauldron to refine her.”
“Do you believe I’ll throw you in there too?”
Zhang Ruochen could not shake the feeling that the pink skeleton would not be suppressed so easily. He was deeply worried, desperately searching for countermeasures, and the ox’s words nearly drove him mad with anger.
Seeing Zhang Ruochen’s grave expression and the killing intent in his eyes, as though something truly catastrophic had occurred, the old yellow ox did not dare say more.
“I refined the Heaven-Sacrificing Bronze Cauldron before, yet nothing changed. Why, when I used divine fire just now, did the surface melt and reveal these witch scripts and patterns?”
Zhang Ruochen pondered carefully, looked at his upraised hands, and a thought struck him. He said, “Could it be because I evolved the Two Forms and my divine qi transformed into yin and yang qi? Or perhaps because I stepped into the Great God level and the temperature of my divine flame greatly increased?”
“You continue ahead along this belt of spiritual qi.”
Zhang Ruochen pointed out a direction for the old yellow ox, then took the Universe Cauldron and returned to the Six Patriarchs’ Chan Release Diagram.
In that direction, the spatial veins showed signs of converging.
Arriving at a barren plain, Zhang Ruochen took out the stone cauldron he had obtained outside Yin Xuetian’s dojo in the Abyss of Darkness and set it on the ground.
The stone cauldron bore not only Sanskrit texts carved by the Six Patriarchs but also udumbara flower marks left by Yin Xuetian.
Inside it was engraved the cultivation method of the Nether Soldier Scroll.
If anyone claimed this was an ordinary cauldron, Zhang Ruochen would not believe it even if beaten to death.
“Refine!”
Zhang Ruochen struck with his right palm. Divine flames poured endlessly from his palm, refining the stone cauldron suspended in mid-air.
The Sanskrit texts of the Six Patriarchs and the udumbara flower marks were already very faint. Under the divine flames, they gradually vanished. The stone body of the cauldron began to melt slowly, dripping golden magma.
“Hua!”
After one section of the cauldron melted, it revealed bronze beneath, radiating an ancient azure glow.
Wherever the azure light touched, the earth crumbled and turned into origin particles.
Soon, the entire outer layer of stone melted away, revealing a bronze cauldron as heavy as a mountain. Its surface was likewise engraved with witch scripts, geography of unknown lands, and an ancient witch god with a human body and serpentine tail.
The sound of the Great Path resounded through the Qiankun Realm. The rules of heaven and earth surged without cease.
This time, Zhang Ruochen discovered that his consciousness seemed to merge completely with the bronze cauldron. He could perceive subtle changes in heaven and earth that he had previously overlooked.
The form of the bronze cauldron before him shifted slightly and no longer felt unfamiliar.
He had seen an identical one outside the Witch Hall in the Abyss of Darkness. It was truly one of the Nine Cauldrons. The excitement in his heart could no longer be expressed in words.
He who obtains the Nine Cauldrons commands the world. All races obey. The heavens prostrate themselves.
Countless Paramount Realm powerhouses throughout history had searched ancient records for them. Who could have imagined that he would possess such immense fortune, obtaining two cauldrons in a single day.
Yet he had long suspected that these two were extraordinary.
Thus Zhang Ruochen did not descend into ecstatic madness. He gradually regained his usual calm, looked around, and discovered that the entire ten-thousand-mile barren plain had turned into origin particles, terrifying the cultivators of the Qiankun Realm.
Origin particles are the foundation of all things in the world. They coexist with space and represent the most fundamental state of matter.
Zhang Ruochen had studied the Complete Book of Ancient Witchcraft and knew something of the Nine Cauldrons.
The Nine Cauldrons originally had no names, but later generations gave them titles.
Heaven, Earth, Mysterious, Yellow, Universe, Eternity, Vast, Desolate – these were eight of them.
The ninth cauldron was called “Witch”.
Its forging marked the peak of the Witch Path.
The cauldron before him was clearly the one known as the Origin Cauldron, the Earth Cauldron.
Origin is the mother of the great earth.
Zhang Ruochen thought to himself, “When the Nine Cauldrons appear, the world will surely fall into great chaos. Those benevolent ancient powerhouses who obtained one would not reveal it. Instead, they used special methods to alter its shape and material, hiding it in disguise.”
“The Earth Cauldron bears the Six Patriarchs’ Sanskrit texts. The stone skin must have been added by the Six Patriarchs themselves.”
“Now that both cauldrons have revealed their true forms, I cannot tell whether this is fortune or calamity for me.”
Zhang Ruochen lacked the Six Patriarchs’ methods. Even if he tried to conceal the Universe Cauldron and Earth Cauldron again, he could not fool true powerhouses. His only option was not to use them.
With the Six Patriarchs’ cultivation, even if the Earth Cauldron had been revealed, no one would have dared seize it.
But after the Six Patriarchs fell?
It would bring disaster to the Western Heaven Buddha Realm.
Of course, the Six Patriarchs might have had another consideration: they did not wish the appearance of the Nine Cauldrons to plunge the world into chaos. Yet now the world was already in turmoil.
If used well, the cauldrons might even trap and kill one or two great enemies.
Zhang Ruochen considered whether to send one of the cauldrons to Tian Nan or to Shang Qiu.
But after thinking it over, he could not bear to part with them.
These were the Nine Cauldrons.
He who obtains the Nine Cauldrons commands the world. That is the true Heavenly Venerable.
The world bows to me alone.
Holding the Earth Cauldron, Zhang Ruochen gazed at the chaotic, newly-born world of light and rain before him. He wished to make the origin particles within ten thousand miles recondense into a barren plain.
If he could, flowers, grass, and trees should all be able to grow.
After all, his attainment in the Path of Life was considerable.
Yet distracting thoughts arose in his mind.
The origin particles filling heaven and earth rushed madly towards him, condensing into a small, brilliantly radiant divine stone.
“This…”
Zhang Ruochen stared in stunned silence, looking at the divine stone, then at the Earth Cauldron in his hand.
Worthy of the Earth Cauldron. Whatever he thought, it could manifest.
Though the ten-thousand-mile territory of the Qiankun Realm condensed into only a small piece of divine stone, it was still extraordinary. It meant Zhang Ruochen would never again worry about obtaining divine stones.
Anywhere in the universe with matter could be broken into origin particles and reformed into divine stones.
The Nine Cauldrons were clearly more than mere weapons of war. They possessed countless other wondrous uses. Otherwise, how could it be said that he who obtains them commands the world?
This Earth Cauldron alone, if it fell into the hands of a Paramount Realm powerhouse, would mean an endless supply of divine stones, already sufficient to command the world.
Zhang Ruochen did not need this single piece of divine stone before him.
“Bang!”
The divine stone shattered under the Earth Cauldron’s power, returning to origin particles that spread outward. Under Zhang Ruochen’s control, they gradually formed continental plates and became a ten-thousand-mile desert.
Soil and rock appeared in the desert. Springs welled up. Grass and trees grew.
This process of evolution was not nearly so swift.
It required the cooperation of the various Paths Zhang Ruochen had cultivated and consumed vast amounts of divine qi.
It took three months to restore the barren plain to its original state.
Wielding the Earth Cauldron, with one thought he could shatter heaven and earth and condense divine origin.
He shattered the divine origin, then spent a hundred days re-evolving heaven and earth.
Those hundred days were not spent merely recreating a barren plain. In truth, Zhang Ruochen gained profound insights and formed new ideas for his future cultivation.
Zhang Ruochen still carried another cauldron, the Six Directions Heavenly Venerable Cauldron, obtained a thousand years ago inside the third Dark Black Star on the Hunting Heaven Battlefield.
It was said to be the treasure of Shi Fu Jun, lord of the Lan Chen Sea on Shi Ji God Star, one of the Stone Clan’s ten ninth-level planets, originating from the Border Wilderness Universe.
It had originally been kept by the Blood Empress. When Zhang Ruochen stepped into the Divine Realm in Xing Huan Tian, she returned the Six Directions Heavenly Venerable Cauldron to him.
For now, Zhang Ruochen had no intention of refining the Six Directions Heavenly Venerable Cauldron, fearing it would invite further great peril.
Even in its sleeping state, its artifact spirit had defied Shi Fu Jun’s attempts to subdue it. He had only managed to seal it. A sleeping artifact spirit of that kind carried too many uncertainties.
Zhang Ruochen looked at the Universe Cauldron and Earth Cauldron before him, unsure whether to rejoice or worry. In the end, he gritted his teeth fiercely, split off two strands of divine soul, and refined them into the cauldron bodies.
“Cousin, I did it!”
Kong Lanyou’s joyful voice transmission reached Zhang Ruochen’s ears.
