926 From Dust to Ashes

“Swish.”

Hundreds of Spirit Qi strands were weaved into the warp and weft of a giant Tripod Cauldron that filled up the sky. What was happening on the ground was even more terrifying. Everyone watched in fear as countless glowing inscriptions appeared on the ground. Those were spells cast by Heavenly Lord of Ancient Medicine.

Meanwhile, the same inscription patterns appeared on the Tripod Cauldron’s surface.

“Boom!”

The enormous Tripod Cauldron let out a thunderous noise. It sounded like the roaring of a Demon Lord inside the cauldron.

“What is that?”

The thirteen elders were perplexed.

Feng Chengzi looked up and found that the giant Tripod Cauldron had taken up the entire sky. Worse, he was looking at the interior of the cauldron, meaning they were inside of the Tripod Cauldron.

“It must be an illusory trick. I have never heard of any art that could cover hundreds of square kilometers. The larger the area covered by a spell, the more spread out its force will be. The Tripod Cauldron in its original size might be able to kill a few Golden Core Cultivators, but when it’s ballooned to this size, I can simply hack its walls open.” Hu Guimin scoffed.

Many people nodded in agreement.

Connate Cultivators could command Essence Qi within an area a few dozen miles wide, but a Golden Core Perfected Cultivator could control all elements of nature within a few hundred miles. They could level mountains, or divert rivers with ease.

Although those Divine Powers were a sight to behold, they were rarely used in battles.

Those arts were useful only to low level cultivators, but they lacked potency while being used against cultivators of similar level of attainment and divine powers.

The combats between Longevity Roll elites were usually quick but deadly. A fight would usually conclude within a few killing blows.

Most of the time, the first strike they landed was the last one.

“Really?”

Chen Fan cracked a smile and said no more.

He extended both arms in front of him as if he were holding an invisible ball, rotating it in his arms. The Tripod Cauldron also started moving, mirroring Chen Fan’s movement. The scene made people believe that Chen Fan was going to create an Elixir from the trapped cultivators.

“Open!”

Feng Chengzi slammed with his palm; countless Dark Gales appeared around him and merged into a giant palm. The energy palm landed on the wall of the cauldron.

To everyone’s surprise, the cauldron wall resisted and remained intact.

“What’s going on?”

Ji Xuanzong furrowed his brow.

Feng Chengzi felt embarrassed. He was the Grand Elder of the Feng Family, a member of the Longevity Roll. And yet, he couldn’t even punch through a wall.

“Thousand Blade Jab of Dark Gale!”

Feng Chengzi lifted one hand and revealed the metal finger cots.

Suddenly, rays of azure energy blades flew out from the tip of his fingers and plunged into the cauldron’s wall.

“This is Feng Chengzi’s Dharma Treasure called Thousand Blade Finger Cots. It’s powerful enough to hurt a Heavenly Lord. Feng Chengzi has enhanced its power for thousands of years, that is why it’s as deadly as a Quasi-Heavenly Treasure,” someone put in.

Feng Chengzi’s attack with the Dharma Treasure would be a threat even to Ji Xuanzong.

However, everyone was shocked by what happened next.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

The cauldron’s wall was showered by azure energy blades. However, other than a few minor dents, the deadly attack couldn’t even make the wall shake a little, much less breaching it.

“Not good!”

Thirteen elders panicked at once.

The signs of danger were right in front of them, and they were not blind. Feng Chengzi was ranked in the top five among the thirteen of them. However, his full-on attack couldn’t even shake the cauldron in the slightest.

“Just give up. This is the Cauldron of Heaven and Earth. Only a Heavenly Alchemist would be able to use it.”

Situ Cheng looked up disheartenedly.

Situ Cheng knew all hope was lost at the first sight of the cauldron. Among all those trapped, he was the only alchemist, a talented one at that. Therefore, he knew the power of this cauldron very well.

“The Cauldron of Heaven and Earth?”

People around him furrowed their brows in confusion.

The name sounded familiar even to Lin Wuhua and Zhao Juexian. Only two of the eldest among them thought they had heard of the name somewhere in the past.

“The main difference between an Alchemy Grandmaster and a Grand Alchemist is that the latter can tap into the Spirit Veins and harness the energy of the stars. From herbs to humans, anything in the world is in their recipes.

“Only the pills created by a real Heavenly Alchemist are considered real Heavenly Pills.”

Situ Cheng wore a troubled look; eyes filled with despair.

“Using the world as his cauldron and harnessing the energy from the stars?”

The elders looked at each other in fear. The description sounded like that of a Heavenly Lord. Legend had it that Heavenly Lords were so in tune with the elements in nature that they could command them with a thought.

They could crush mountains with a grain of sand and sever the moon with a blade of grass.

Their fury was thunder, sadness was a blizzard and their smiles were the soft winter breeze.

They commanded everything and were everything; they were everywhere, and nowhere. They were Heavenly Lords!

“Hold on a second, do you mean Chen Beixuan has become a Heavenly Lord? That’s absurd,” Hu Guimin shouted in disbelief.

Everyone was floored by the prospect.

All Heavenly Alchemists were Heavenly Lords!

“I can’t say for sure…”

Situ Cheng stood with a wry smile on his face.

“I can’t believe it!”

Ji Xuanzong rose to the sky and revealed his dharma form. It was a two thousand meter tall giant. He summoned a thunderbolt and hurled it at the cauldron’s wall.

“I can’t believe it either,” Feng Chengzi, Hu Guimin and Shang Gongyue shouted at the top of their lungs and attacked at once.

“Boom, boom!”

A series of explosions, each more powerful than a nuclear bomb, erupted by the cauldron’s wall. The sound of the explosions reverberated inside the cauldron as the thirteen elders unveiled their true might.

But it didn’t work.

When the shockwave subsided, everyone was appalled after confirming that the cauldron wall was still intact. The shining inscriptions had blocked all incoming attacks.

“Clap!”

Situ Cheng dropped his knees and winced. “We are dead.”

Chen Fan’s hands moved rhythmically as countless Spirit Veins flowed into his body, and were later channeled into the cauldron.

The cauldron gained more solidity by the second, and the carvings on its walls looked increasingly vivid. The cauldron’s surface started to glow with a metallic sheen, making it look as formidable as ever.

Chen Fan stomped the ground.

“Boom!”

A plume of fire was shot out from a hole on the ground. The green fire was the True Fire of Earth Lung that had been gathering strength for ten thousand years.

Chen Fan opened the seal over the fire, letting it engulf the cauldron.

In the sky, rays of sunshine merged together and formed a Solar True Fire that wrapped itself around the top of the cauldron like fiery chains.

This was a genuine display of a Heavenly Alchemist’s true might.

Chen Fan had been holding back his power until then, in order to lure his opponents into the cauldron. He would never be able to create the Longevity Pill using the Treasure Cauldron of a Hundred Medicines.

“We have lost.”

Situ Cheng collapsed on the ground and looked at Chen Fan with a mix of strong emotions in his eyes. He couldn’t understand how Chen Fan had turned into a Heavenly Alchemist while being a Golden Core Cultivator.

“I have lost!”

Situ Cheng let out a sudden cry and then slowly closed his eyes in resignation.

Meanwhile, the thirteen elders were still working on the Cauldron, trying to break it open. Tried as they might, the cauldron remained intact.

As soon as the True Fire of Earth Lung and the Solar Ture Fire touched the cauldron, the temperature inside the cauldron surged rapidly. When the rocks started to melt into lava, the elders knew they wouldn’t last long.

“Kill!”

Some elders turned around to attack Chen Fan.

If they could do away with Chen Fan, they might be able to get out of that confinement.

However, their attacks simply melted inside the cauldron. That was Chen Fan’s domain. He was invincible inside.

He floated in the air, looking down at the sea of fire underneath like a Heavenly Venerate.

“Argh!”

At the end, Feng Chengzi and the other elders used their Quasi-Heavenly Treasures.

“Dzi Bead of Dark Gale.”

“Taiyi Sword of Fiend Slay.”

“Banner of Banishment.”

“…”

They revealed thirteen quasi-heavenly treasures one after another. Lin Wuhua felt that thirteen Demon Gods had awakened, and were ready to wreak havoc.

But it was too late.

A Quasi-Heavenly Treasure was far less potent than Heavenly Treasure. Worse, to unleash their full power, they need to be activated during battle. Chen Fan didn’t allow that to happen.

“Arise!” Chen Fan formed a hand seal and uttered his command with a booming voice.

Boom!

Countless fire dragons flew out from the Cauldron walls and charged at the elders. They carried the combined might of True Fire of Earth Lung and Solar True Fire; they were deadly enough to melt even a Heavenly Lord, much less Golden Core Cultivators.

“Argh!”

Chen Fan’s face remained impassive despite the desperate howls and cries. He cast a few more hand signs, doubling down on his art and letting the fire dragons set the sky on fire.

The fire inside the cauldron burned for three days and three nights.

When Chen Fan was done and dispelled the cauldron, people stared at an ashen emptiness. Mountains, Earth, Rivers and the elders; all of it had turned into ashes.

Chen Fan floated in the sky; the pale ashes outlined his frame. The cauldron had shrunk to the size of an apple; it sat peacefully in Chen Fan’s palm.

The cauldron had reduced everything into ashes!

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