Chapter 177 – The King’s Poison Cauldron
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up as he stared at the stone bridge. For three days now, he had been observing the stone bridge and still hadn’t stepped onto it.
Apart from this stone bridge, there is nothing in this gray world.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment before waving his hand. The 42 tornadoes behind him suddenly stopped spinning. They transformed into tens of thousands of tiny creatures, and then the creatures began to scatter.
Wang Lin closed his eyes slightly and used his connection with the second demon to observe the small beasts. The small beasts scattered, leaving only the sound of flapping wings. After a while, even the sounds disappeared.
After a long time, he suddenly opened his eyes and flew towards the northwest. Small creatures began to gather from all directions and re-formed a tornado behind him.
Soon, Wang Lin stopped in front of a stone slab over 30 feet tall. The slab emitted a red light, giving it a demonic appearance. There were several small creatures on the stone slab. They flapped their wings and made buzzing sounds.
Upon seeing Wang Lin’s arrival, the small creatures flew toward him and rejoined the tornado behind him. Wang Lin saw four large words on the stone tablet—Path of No Return.
These three words carried an ancient aura. Wang Lin stared at them for a moment before shifting his gaze to the bottom right corner. He stared thoughtfully for a moment before waving his hand. A gust of wind blew away all the dust and dirt on the tablet, revealing a row of small words.
“I have passed the earth test and captured the king creature there before arriving at this Road of No Return. This place is very interesting; if anyone in the future sees this, just consider it fate. I will give you one piece of advice: ponder the meaning of ‘No Return’.”
Wang Lin’s expression remained calm, but he was secretly surprised. These small words were the same as the ones he saw on the black tower. They were clearly written by the same person.
From those words, the trials on earth were incredibly easy for this person. Even the powerful king creatures there were captured by him.
However, after thinking about it, Wang Lin narrowed his eyes. If this person had captured the king creature in the earthly court, why was it still there? There must be a lie in these words. The word “capture” implied that the creature was now following this person.
Of course there is a chance that he actually caught it and another one was simply born after countless years.
Wang Lin wasn’t interested in whether this was true or false. His gaze returned to the words “The Path of No Return” and he began to ponder them.
After a long time, he turned around and flew towards the stone bridge with a tornado following behind him.
After returning to the bridge, Wang Lin slapped his storage bag and the demon Xu Liguo immediately flew out. He looked at the little creatures jealously and secretly complained in his heart, “What if he has so many younger brothers following him? I will find my own followers!”
Wan Lin looked at the stone bridge and pointed at it. This time, Xu Liguo immediately ran towards the bridge without trying to bargain like before. He was full of energy as he proudly looked at the tornado and thought, “See this? This devil still thinks I’m more important. Otherwise, why doesn’t he let number two do it?”
When he saw Wang Lin, he revealed a calm expression before flying toward the stone bridge. He flew for quite some time without encountering any danger and even circled it several times before returning.
Wang Lin frowned slightly. He reached out his hand. A small creature flew out of the tornado and landed in his palm. The creature stared at him with its small eyes and remained silent.
Wang Lin threw the little creature toward the black stone bridge. The little creature took three steps before stopping. Wang Lin stared at the little creature with a serious expression.
The small creature’s body trembled as it slowly turned around. Its eyes were filled with fear. Then, just as it turned, a vortex appeared beneath the small creature, sucking it in. A moment later, everything returned to normal.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment. He understood that the stone bridge was the key to leaving the Path of No Return. He tested the bridge with a few more small creatures, and the results were the same.
However, Wang Lin noticed that when a group of small creatures died, only one would be affected at a time, while the others remained unaffected until the first one died. Then another small creature would be affected, and so on.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up as he muttered, “No Return… No Return… that means that once you step forward, you cannot return…” He pondered this but still did not step onto the bridge.
He sat in the lotus position beside the bridge and took out two storage pouches. One contained a golden thread. This was the thread he had stolen from the mysterious corpse while studying the Divine Path in the War God Temple.
Unfortunately, there was a mysterious force in the bag that prevented his divine sense from entering and opening it. Wang Lin knew that the bag contained someone else’s divine sense and he had to erase it before he could open it.
However, this divine sense was too powerful; after trying several times, Wang Lin gave up. Instead, he wrapped it in his divine sense so that the divine sense inside the bag would be cut off from the outside world, preventing its owner from sensing it.
Although Wang Lin wasn’t strong enough to erase the divine sense, he still managed to hide it with his Ji Realm divine sense.
The other bag containing the items was the one he stole from Hunchback Meng. The divine sense there had disappeared, meaning Hunchback Meng was dead.
Wang Lin sneered inwardly. His eyes lit up as he opened it. This was indeed the savings of a Soul Formation cultivator for thousands of years. Just the spirit stones alone, there were over 300,000, piled up like a small mountain, and they were all top-quality.
What made Wang Lin’s eyes even brighter were two pieces of stone with halos surrounding them. They were extremely rare and high-quality spirit stones.
Wang Lin’s heart suddenly pounded. Just these two high-quality spirit stones were worth the risk of stealing them from Hunchback Meng.
Besides the spirit stone, there were a few bottles. Lastly, for the magical treasure, there was only a green cauldron that was split in two and nothing else.
Wang Lin understood after pondering for a moment. Hunchback Meng had been trapped for such a long time, so he must have used up all his treasures.
His guess was very accurate. Hunchback Meng possessed many treasures, all of which were of the Nascent level or higher. However, after attempting to break through the tornado several times, he exhausted all his treasures, especially when he used ten spirit beasts as substitutes. He wasted many treasures in the attempt. He was even willing to explode his treasures to make way, but unfortunately, he still failed in the end.
That’s why the only magical treasure left to him was the green cauldron.
In addition to all this, there were also many jade slips inside the storage bag. Wang Lin examined them one by one, the smile on his face growing wider with each one. These jade slips contained alchemy methods, refining methods, and records of spirit beasts.
These things were extremely useful to Wang Lin right now. At least he would no longer have the problem of not recognizing valuable materials when he saw them.
Furthermore, Hunchback Meng was skilled in alchemy and poisons, so the bag contained many jade slips specialized in those fields. Wang Lin spent a long time reading them all, increasing his knowledge over a hundredfold.
There was a dark green jade stone that caught Wang Lin’s attention. It was a cultivation method, and its name consisted of only one word: Underworld.
This method is said to originate from the demon god Qi, which uses poison as the foundation of one’s dao. There are nine layers in total, and at the sixth layer, even Soul Formation cultivators will be unable to withstand the poison.
However, this method is extremely cruel. One must endure unimaginable pain as various poisons must be injected into the body to create a complete poison body.
These side effects persist until one reaches the ninth layer. At that point, all the toxins are released from the body to form the true netherworld poison, allowing one to return to normal. Before this, one will suffer from deformities. The first thing that will happen is that bumps will develop on the person.
After Wang Lin finished looking at it, he pondered for a moment and gave up on cultivating it. Hunchback Meng must have that foul odor because he practiced this method. Although Wang Lin didn’t care about his appearance, the jade slip stated that cultivating this method would fill your body with poison. There was a chance that the poison would invade your consciousness, turning you into an empty shell that only knew how to kill.
This was the main reason why he gave up on cultivating this method. Although he couldn’t use this cultivation method, there were still many techniques within the jade that he could use if he had poison.
Regarding the refining of poison, Wang Lin had read the jade that contained all of Hunchback Meng’s experiences, which made Wang Lin’s heart tremble with excitement.
He took all the bottles out of his storage bag and used a jade slip to identify each one. Almost all of them were poisonous, and only one bottle contained a pill that Wang Lin recognized, which was the pill he had taken to prevent himself from being poisoned.
This antidote pill is only of moderate quality. Only by taking a mild poison along with it can its effects be enhanced.
Wang Lin put everything into his bag and threw Hunchback Meng’s belongings to the ground. Then he picked up an object and his expression became serious.
This object is the treasure of Hunchback Meng’s life, namely the green cauldron.
Although the cauldron had been split in two, powerful spiritual energy still emanated from it. However, this spiritual energy was filled with poison. The green substance, which could kill divine senses, made Wang Lin extremely cautious as he examined it.
He knew that besides the high-grade spirit stones and green jade, the next most valuable item in Hunchback Meng’s bag was this cauldron. After all, this cauldron was the life treasure of a Soul Formation cultivator, and had been refined within his body for thousands of years.
When he examined the jade, there was an explanation. When one reaches the second layer, they need a treasure to suppress the poison in their body.
This cauldron is a replica of the legendary King’s Medicine Cauldron. Although it’s a replica, the materials used to make this green cauldron are no worse than the King’s Medicine Cauldron. What’s worse is that this cauldron can’t absorb the spiritual energy from tens of thousands of herbs like the King’s Medicine Cauldron can.
This cauldron was the most important treasure of a sect in a Tier 3 cultivation nation. Hunchback Meng spent hundreds of years to obtain it. He first joined the sect and became the personal disciple of the sect head due to his talent. Later, when he had the opportunity to approach the cauldron, he stole it, killed his master, and fled to the Sea of Devils. Afterward, he used the cauldron as his life’s treasure.
He took the King’s Medicine Cauldron and refined it into the King’s Poison Cauldron. If he could successfully reach the ninth layer, then although it wouldn’t reach the level of the legendary King’s Medicine Cauldron, it would be quite close. However, instead of being a King’s Medicine Cauldron, it would be a King’s Poison Cauldron.
Unfortunately, he died before he got there, and thanks to a coincidence, this cauldron is now in Wang Lin’s hands.
Wang Lin remembered what the jade had said about this cauldron. After pondering for a while, he realized that if he cultivated the same technique, then after reaching a certain level, he could devour it and make it his own life treasure. However, he had decided not to cultivate this method, which made this cauldron difficult to handle.
Wang Lin would be extremely frustrated if he couldn’t use this kind of treasure. The reason he was doing all this was to become stronger. Although he wasn’t close to the Nascent Soul stage yet, and this wouldn’t increase his chances of reaching it, he had to travel through this dangerous place, and this green cauldron could definitely increase his chances of survival.
Wang Lin’s face turned grim. He raised his head and stared at the stone bridge. His eyes lit up before he opened his mouth, allowing the crystal sword to fly out. The sword circled around him several times before stopping in front of him.
Wang Lin stared at the flying sword with a lingering expression on his face. He clenched his teeth and struck the crystal sword. The sword trembled for a moment before emitting a sword chant. Then, red lines appeared on the sword’s body.
This was the soul essence blood he had used to refine this sword during the Zhao Dynasty. Although his body and sword were destroyed, his blood refining technique was extremely cruel. It forcibly carved the soul essence blood into the sword spirit.
This sword spirit originally had no form or intelligence, but it had resided within Wang Lin’s soul for many years, and underwent a transformation when Wang Lin became a soul devourer. The sword spirit gained a bit of intelligence and was nourished.
It wasn’t until Wang Lin used the War God Temple’s refining technique to make him another body that his transformation was complete.
It could be said that this flying sword had done a great deal for Wang Lin. Many people had died because of it. This sword had accumulated so much killing intent that it could now be considered a killing treasure.
Wang Lin showed a solemn expression as he moved his right hand over the sword. The blood streaks on the sword became more and more visible until the sword cracked along those streaks and fell to the ground in pieces.
All that existed now were lines of blood floating in the air, and shadows of swords appearing and disappearing.
Wang Lin took a deep breath before patting his storage bag. The reaction furnace flew out. He threw the two halves of the green cauldron into the reaction furnace. Green gas immediately covered the reaction furnace while hissing sounds could be heard from within.
Wang Lin’s eyes turned cold. His hands formed a seal and placed it on the reaction furnace. The reaction furnace began to spin faster and faster, causing the green gas around it to swirl, creating a green tornado.
Wang Lin reached out and picked up all the crystal sword fragments. He picked up one piece and stared at the rapidly spinning reaction furnace. After a long time, he threw one piece into the rapidly spinning reaction furnace.
Upon entering, the crystal pieces melt and mix with what is inside the furnace.
Wang Lin calmly threw the pieces into the furnace, and after an hour, all the pieces were inside the furnace. Wang Lin let out a sigh of relief. Then, he formed a seal with his hands and placed them in the reaction furnace.
After doing this, the reaction furnace began to spin much faster. Now he couldn’t see what was inside anymore; all that was there was a stretched mass. The green vortex appeared to have stopped, but if one looked closely, they would see that it hadn’t stopped moving. It was simply moving so fast that it appeared to be standing still.
Wang Lin muttered, “It’s still not enough!” With his divine senses, he could see that the heat generated by the rotation of the reaction furnace was not enough. This heat only caused the green cauldron to turn slightly red, but it had not melted.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up as several items flew out of his bag. He didn’t even look at them as he grabbed one and threw it into the reaction furnace.
As it fell, there was a puff of green smoke. Although the reaction furnace did not rotate faster, the temperature inside increased by one fold. The green cauldron inside was now completely red.
But there are no signs of it melting yet.
The item he threw in was a special refining material from the War God Temple, the Chicken Blood Stone. When stimulated by spiritual energy, it could produce a high temperature.
If too much is used, then instead of raising the temperature, the temperature actually drops. That’s why Wang Lin keeps it after using a few.
The interior of the reaction furnace had reached terrifying temperatures, but the green cauldron was still glowing red with no signs of melting.
Wang Lin pondered for a moment before throwing out Purple Moon Vines, Shattered Flower Stones, Blue Moon Wood, and dozens of other War God Shrine refining materials. After these items were thrown into the reaction furnace one by one, clouds of colorful smoke rose from the reaction furnace in the shape of a cauldron.
This smoke pot broke the green vortex, but then, in a mysterious way, it returned to the reaction furnace, dragging the green gas with it.
A series of rumbling sounds rang out from the reaction furnace, and cracks began to appear on it. Wang Lin focused his attention and observed the green cauldron inside. The green cauldron was beginning to melt, but the melting rate was extremely slow. At this rate, there was a high chance the reaction furnace would be destroyed before it could finish melting.
Wang Lin’s eyes lit up. He raised his right hand, and a blue flame appeared, causing the surrounding temperature to immediately drop. This was the underworld fire created when he completed the underworld ascension cultivation method.
This ice flame had fused with Wang Lin’s golden core, so it would never disappear, but if it was used excessively, it would damage his golden core.
That’s why he only used this as his trump card before. He wouldn’t use it casually.
Seeing that the reaction furnace had reached its limit and was about to collapse, he sent the blue flame forward.
Wang Lin concentrated intently as he controlled the fire to move slowly forward. He had to ensure there were no fluctuations in the flame to maintain a low, constant temperature.
At this time, the number of cracks on the reaction furnace suddenly increased, but before the cracks could spread, they were surrounded by ice flames, which solidified the furnace.
After a few breaths, Wang Lin was already sweating. He had taken a huge risk. If he controlled the fire well, it would help keep the reaction furnace intact, but if he messed up, it would hasten the destruction of the reaction furnace.
Currently, thanks to the strengthening of the ice flame, the cracking of the reaction furnace had slowed down. However, if he didn’t control how cold the flame was, it would affect the melting of the green cauldron within. This made Wang Lin even more focused, as he needed to maintain the temperature at a point that would help keep the furnace stable but wouldn’t affect the melting of the green cauldron.
The green cauldron slowly melted. Wang Lin didn’t dare to relax during this time. After an unknown amount of time had passed, the green cauldron completely melted into a pool of dark green liquid.
Wang Lin let out a sigh of relief as his hand formed a seal that landed on the reaction furnace. This caused the reaction furnace to stop spinning. Wang Lin reached out and removed all of the green liquid.
Within the liquid, the shadow of a small cauldron would appear and disappear. Wang Lin knew that it was the cauldron spirit of this Poison King Cauldron. Without hesitation, he waved his hand, and the sword spirit floating in the air merged with the green liquid.
The cauldron spirit fused with him. Wang Lin’s expression was solemn. The two spirits didn’t act as Wang Lin had predicted and instead attacked each other. After some fighting, the cauldron spirit turned into green gas and entered the sword spirit.
After the two merged, Wang Lin finally relaxed. His hand pointed a few times as the green liquid slowly solidified according to Wang Lin’s will into the shape of a six-inch short sword.
Two rows of countless tiny thorns grew from both sides of the sword. The thorns emitted a green light that looked quite dazzling.
The flying sword had completely hardened and was now dark green. The sword also contained poison from the King’s Poison Cauldron. If someone came into contact with the poison, if the sword did not kill them immediately, the poison would eventually kill them.
Even a Nascent Soul cultivator would be hard-pressed to escape death if struck by this flying sword. After all, the poison within this sword came from Hunchback Meng’s King Poison Cauldron.
However, after reforming this sword, he no longer dared to swallow it and instead kept it within his golden core. Even when he used it, he had to be careful, because if he was struck by it, it would be difficult for him to survive.
There is no antidote for this King’s Poison Cauldron. Except for Hunchback Meng, no one can cure it.
Wang Lin was confident in his power, especially the spikes on the sides of the sword. With just a thought, the spikes could snap and attack the enemy, making it extremely difficult to defend against.