Chapter 102: The White Emperor’s Glazed Cauldron (Part 1)
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If this Deadly Divine Palace were situated in the mortal world, it would be comparable to the residence of a provincial governor—grand, magnificent, and dazzlingly beautiful. But among immortal sects, the palace was somewhat small and lacked the bearing of a celestial abode. That, however, suited the identity of the Lifeless Island Master, a wandering cultivator. As a lone cultivator, where would he find the time and energy to build a palace hundreds, even thousands, of miles across?
The residences of wandering cultivators were inevitably somewhat cramped and provincial. They could not be compared with a giant sect such as the Langya Chamber of Commerce.
Indeed, they might not even match the estate of a clan like the Jiang family.
After blasting the palace into its true form, Jiang Feng sensed faint traces of magical power coming from deep within the Lifeless Divine Palace. He gave a cold laugh, raised one hand, and countless streams of netherforce shot from his fingertips. In midair, they transformed once more into the Profound-Heaven Divine Palm, descending from above in a devastating strike. Several rooms collapsed instantly.
Though those rooms had been decorated with dazzling jewels, they were made only of ordinary gold, silver, and pearls. Such things were priceless in the mortal world, but to cultivators they were practically useless.
Jiang Feng felt no regret as the pearls, gold, and silver adorning the buildings were shattered beneath his attack.
Gold and silver from the mortal world were generally of little use to cultivators. With them, one could neither purchase pills nor acquire treasured weapons or spirit artifacts. Gold and silver could be used only occasionally in alchemy. Seeing these decorations, Jiang Feng inexplicably thought of the Profound Star Adept, for he too, like the Lifeless Island Master, used worthless gold and silver to adorn his palace.
“Ah! You wretched ghost, you actually found your way to Lifeless Island!”
Jiang Feng demolished palace after palace. At last, the Lifeless Island Master could no longer remain hidden. He shot out from the most concealed alchemy chamber in his residence. Rising with him was a house-sized structure shaped like a cauldron.
On closer inspection, that cauldron-shaped structure was actually an alchemy furnace!
Indeed, it was a colossal cauldron large enough to be mistaken for a house!
Although this enormous furnace was not as massive as the Azure Emperor Glazed Cauldron, it was still far from small. It possessed an imposing might without equal. Astral energy coiled around it, air currents spiraled violently, and fierce winds roared. A faint radiance of treasure shimmered across its surface, though no one could tell what metal had been used to forge it. Powerful medicinal energy and fluctuations of magical power surged from the furnace, as if thousands upon thousands of stallions were trampling within, shaking the heavens.
At a glance, it was clear that this was a treasured alchemy furnace!
“A furnace of the White Netherworld Sacred Artifact grade! Heavens! No wonder the Lifeless Island Master, a mere wandering cultivator, managed to cultivate to the third level of Divine Ability, the Astral Force Realm, and refine such vast netherforce! He actually possesses a furnace of the White Netherworld Sacred Artifact grade. Treasured artifacts are already rare, but alchemy furnaces are the rarest of all. A treasured alchemy furnace could easily be exchanged for a hundred treasured flying swords or ceremonial robes!”
Jiang Feng cried out, making a rattling sound deep in his throat, as though he had choked on his own saliva. His shock was immense.
An alchemy furnace was like land to an ordinary person.
Once an ordinary person possessed land, he could grow grain, raise silkworms on mulberry trees, and weave cloth. Food and clothing would no longer be a concern.
A cultivator with an alchemy furnace could produce medicinal pills, forge countless flying swords, and even temper his own physical body and magical power. Many arts of cultivation had to be practiced within an alchemy furnace. Jiang Feng’s own “Absolute Luo Golden Body,” for example, also needed to be boiled and refined within one.
With a treasured alchemy furnace, a cultivator could be said to possess a guarantee of prosperity.
Jiang Feng had once possessed the Azure Emperor Glazed Cauldron as well, but it had been shattered by the Star God summoned by the Profound Star Adept.
In truth, most of the true disciples in Nine Crags Town used ordinary alchemy furnaces. There were fewer than ten furnaces of the White Netherworld Sacred Artifact grade in existence. Only the heads of the great clans, the president of the Langya Chamber of Commerce, and a handful of other highly accomplished true disciples possessed such treasures.
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It was precisely because they had occasionally encountered great opportunities and obtained alchemy furnaces of this level that their cultivation had advanced by leaps and bounds.
Of all magical treasures, alchemy furnaces were the most difficult to refine. They required countless formations: filtering formations, formations for controlling true flame, formations for gathering heavenly fire, earthly fire, thunderfire, woodfire, metalfire, and countless other flames; formations for separating medicinal ingredients; formations for regulating air currents; formations for harmonizing medicinal properties; and even various musical formations.
Medicinal pills possessed a degree of spirituality. During alchemy, filling the furnace with beautiful music could enhance their medicinal efficacy. There were also formations for exorcising demons, because once a pill was successfully refined, invisible heavenly demons would often descend to destroy it.
The formations involved were rich and extraordinarily complex.
A yellow-grade Netherworld Sacred Artifact alchemy furnace could even control the passage of time and the transformation of space within its chambers.
An ordinary alchemy furnace contained anywhere from dozens to hundreds or even thousands of formations.
A flying sword or ceremonial robe was considered remarkable if it contained merely a few.
The alchemy furnace was the king of all magical treasures. To judge a cultivator’s wealth and status, one primarily looked at his furnace. If his furnace was excellent, his cultivation was almost certainly profound. This had been proven true time and again.
Many magical treasures were forged within alchemy furnaces!
Now that the Lifeless Island Master had emerged with a White Netherworld Sacred Artifact-grade alchemy furnace at his side, it was clear why he had been able to cultivate such astonishingly powerful netherforce. With a superior furnace, one could refine pills of higher quality, and one’s cultivation would naturally rise with the tide.
“Hmph. I wondered how this fellow had managed to cultivate such formidable netherforce. It turns out he possesses such a treasure. That furnace resembles your ruined Azure Emperor Glazed Cauldron very closely. Perhaps the two have some connection.”
Within the sea of consciousness, Jue gazed at the floating, ever-spinning alchemy furnace and praised it repeatedly.
“Kill! Kill, kill! Forget everything else. We must obtain the Lifeless Island Master’s White Netherworld Sacred Artifact alchemy furnace. The benefits are simply too great.”
“Good! Wood Sovereign Netherforce Sword!”
Jiang Feng did not hesitate. He released his netherforce, transforming it into ten million Azure Wood Divine Swords that shot forth in a vast, overwhelming rain, cleaving toward the airborne Lifeless Island Master.
Every one of them had been condensed from his Wood Sovereign energy. Their sharpness was unmatched.
“Kill!”
The Lifeless Island Master knew that he was in grave danger. Astral energy circulated around his body and transformed into the “Earthly Fiend Heavenly Wave Palm,” erupting into a sky full of palm shadows that crashed fiercely against Jiang Feng’s Wood Sovereign Netherforce Swords.
Clang, clang, clang, clang...
Netherforce and astral energy collided and exploded simultaneously in the sky, like millions of fireworks. A large portion of the resplendent Lifeless Divine Palace below was shaken into ruin, while fragments of gold, silver, and jewels flew everywhere.
Jiang Feng grunted and slid more than thirty feet through the air before stabilizing himself. The Lifeless Island Master, however, was sent sliding backward for more than a hundred feet and crashed into his treasured alchemy furnace before finally coming to a stop.
In their direct clash, Jiang Feng had actually gained the upper hand!
The moment Jiang Feng attacked, his strength surged like tens of thousands of warhorses charging simultaneously, his might utterly overwhelming. The combined magical power of the Blackwater King Serpent and his own was enough to suppress experts of the Astral Force Realm. Moreover, the quality of his Wood Sovereign Netherforce was astonishingly high, giving him an overwhelming advantage.
“How has your magical power increased so much?” the Lifeless Island Master asked in horror.
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“Monster, die!”
The answer came from Ghost Moon’s Ice-Soul Thorn. Frigid air spread in every direction, freezing vast quantities of seawater into solid ice. Even the Lifeless Island Master’s entire body was encased in thick walls of ice, leaving him unable to move.
“Ice-Soul Divine Thunder!”
Ghost Moon had now cultivated a Divine Ability, and she was far more powerful than before. Her Ice-Soul Thorn had reached a state of perfection and could unleash its full might. It transformed into a frost-covered horned dragon that opened its jaws and spat out a succession of ghastly white Ice-Soul Divine Thunders.
The explosions battered the Lifeless Island Master’s astral energy until it nearly dispersed. When they had fought over the Blackwater King Serpent, he had ambushed her and nearly injured her. Now that she had the chance to settle the score, how could she possibly hold back?
This was all because he had absorbed a considerable amount of the netherforce belonging to the Red-Eyed Blackwater Serpent within Jiang Feng’s River-Mountain Bottle.
“White Emperor Glazed Cauldron!”
Seeing that the situation had turned against him, the Lifeless Island Master let out a furious roar. The house-sized alchemy furnace behind him, shaped like a cauldron, suddenly began to spin. Five flames shot from its surface, and the instant they touched the ice, they exploded.
Thunder split the clear sky! The earth trembled and the mountains shook! Heaven and earth seemed to collapse!
All the ice shattered into fragments. The Ice-Soul Thorn was blasted back with a series of anguished cries, finally falling into Ghost Moon’s hand. Ghost Moon gave a muffled grunt and, after several flickers, appeared behind Jiang Feng. This time she had been prepared and escaped unharmed.
“Hahahaha! With my White Emperor Glazed Cauldron in hand, what can you possibly do to me? Once you enter the cauldron, no evil can touch you!”
The Lifeless Island Master threw back his head and laughed wildly. With a movement of his body, he was about to enter the cauldron.
So this cauldron-shaped alchemy furnace was called the White Emperor Glazed Cauldron!
It truly had some connection to the Azure Emperor Glazed Cauldron Jiang Feng had encountered before. The resemblance in their names alone was enough to suggest it.
“In your dreams!”
Jiang Feng moved, and his netherforce boiled. The overwhelming power of the netherworld condensed once more, astonishingly transforming into a tiny needle. Clear light flickered from its surface, so brilliant that none could look directly at it.
“Wood Sovereign Divine Needle!”
With a sharp hiss, the tiny Wood Sovereign Divine Needle flashed forward and reached the Lifeless Island Master in an instant. It pierced through his netherforce and bored directly into his body.
Jiang Feng had cultivated his Wood Sovereign Netherforce through the Heavenly Wood Divine Needle. Although he had absorbed every trace of heavenly wood energy from that needle, he could still condense netherforce at any time and reproduce its form.
Now he condensed his Wood Sovereign Netherforce once more, reshaping it into the Heavenly Wood Divine Needle and firing it out. Its power had been compressed to the absolute limit. He struck at the precise instant when the Lifeless Island Master had shattered the ice and was unable to replenish the power he had expended.
One lethal blow!
He had seized the opportunity with flawless precision.
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