The Nine Cauldrons

"Ah~"

Chu Xin was puzzled!

Gu Sheng had already reached out, placed Azure Spirit, which had been wrapped around his body, into her hands, removed his outer robe, and put some miscellaneous items on the Black Wind Leopard's back. Then, wearing only a pair of shorts, he walked toward the lake.

"Splash~"

Gu Sheng leaped forward and plunged into the lake.

"W-what is he doing? Come to think of it, where did this guy get so much information? Is he really that good at gathering intel?"

Chu Xin walked to the lakeside and stared helplessly at the constantly bubbling surface. She had grown used to the way Gu Sheng did things—never explaining anything properly from beginning to end. Whenever she asked, he would only say that he had gathered the information, refusing to reveal its source and leaving her feeling as though cats were scratching at her heart.

If Gu Sheng knew what Chu Xin was thinking, he would surely cry out that he was innocent. It was not that he did not want to explain, but that he did not dare and had no idea how to begin. How could he convince Chu Xin of the Nine Cauldrons from Iron Arm Ape Mountain and the Nine Cauldrons from Silver Horn Mountain? How could he explain the source of the information?

Some things simply could not be explained. Almost no one in the world knew about Iron Arm Ape Mountain and Silver Horn Mountain.

Chu Xin knew Gu Sheng's origins. He was an ordinary person from the modern world, so how could he know so much about the wilderness of The Nine Cauldrons? None of it could be explained. If he claimed to have learned it from Teng Qinghu's memories, the source of the information would still be a problem. How could a village laborer from a small mountain village in Jiangning Prefecture know so much?

If he wanted to explain everything clearly, he would inevitably have to come up with one excuse after another. Gu Sheng had no time for that. It was simpler to say nothing and just bring her there. Why bother with all that?

"Ah~ These traces!"

Chu Xin was idly looking around when she noticed that some of the traces on the ground were highly unusual. Those enormous pits and deep trenches looked as though a giant had smashed them with a huge hammer. The trenches were long, one after another, and extremely chaotic.

"These are sword marks! And what is this? It looks like a fist, but how could a person have such a huge fist?"

Chu Xin crouched on the ground and extended her little hand to compare it.

"Pfft!"

Just as Chu Xin was feeling bored, Gu Sheng surfaced, took two breaths, and sank back down.

"Whoosh~"

Before long, Gu Sheng paddled with one hand as though he was preparing to come ashore. Chu Xin could see that his other hand seemed to be holding something.

"You're back—ah~"

Chu Xin happily went to greet him, but she jumped when she saw what he was holding. She instinctively took half a step back and shouted angrily at Gu Sheng, "Why did you go find a skeleton? Are you trying to scare someone to death in broad daylight?"

What Gu Sheng carried out of the water and placed on the ground was a complete skeleton. Its bones were jade-like and faintly luminous. Despite enduring many years of vicissitudes, it remained completely intact. Apart from two broken bones at the chest, there was not the slightest damage anywhere else. A pair of purple gloves covered both hands of the skeleton.

"Whose skeleton is this? How powerful must he have been when he was alive?"

Mustering her courage, Chu Xin walked over to Gu Sheng's side. She could not help marveling at the intact, glowing skeleton. The Li Qingyu whose body she had possessed had come from Gui Yuan Sect, and she had once heard the sect elders mention that the skeletons of experts were different from those of ordinary people after death.

Chu Xin came from the modern world and had always been skeptical of such unscientific things. Martial artists were not mythical creatures like werewolves or vampires, so how could such an enormous transformation possibly occur?

But now, she was genuinely shocked. No one would contradict her if she said that the skeleton before her was a carefully carved artificial work of art.

"A Heavenly Rankings expert from six hundred years ago, Wei Dan, who had reached the innate Golden Core realm."

Gu Sheng answered Chu Xin's question. He crouched down and reached out to remove the small pendant worn at the skeleton's chest. It was a black little cauldron only the size of a finger.

"Huh? What is this?"

Chu Xin looked at the pendant Gu Sheng had taken out and asked with great curiosity. What vexed her was that Gu Sheng ignored her at that moment, standing motionless as though he were dazed and pretending to be stupid.

At that moment, a long-awaited notification rang out in Gu Sheng's mind.

Ding!

Reincarnator Number 111 has touched a key node in this world. Special quest unlocked.

Special Quest: Nine Cauldrons... Recognize the Nine Cauldrons as its master; personal Conquest Progress increased by 10%; Luck Points...

Special Quest—Stage One: Wei Dan's Last Wish: Kill his enemy...

Ding-ling!

The Multiverse Reincarnation System reminds the host that you have come into contact with this world's ultimate origin—the Nine Cauldrons. You do not meet the conditions for actively becoming its master. Forcibly becoming its master requires Luck Points...

Gu Sheng stood there stunned for a long while. Then he suddenly felt his hand grow lighter, and the object vanished. He instinctively shook his slightly dizzy head.

"Hey! Come back to your senses!"

At that moment, the little Chu Xin was standing on tiptoe in front of Gu Sheng, waving her tender hand before his eyes. When she saw him react after shaking his head, she immediately asked, "What happened to you just now? Why did you keep quiet?"

Gu Sheng lowered his head. The Nine Cauldrons in his palm had already disappeared. He turned his head and saw that the pendant had returned to its usual place around Wei Dan's neck. It seemed that he was not the one fated to possess the Nine Cauldrons.

Gu Sheng turned around and looked solemnly at Chu Xin. "Xin'er, did you see how the pendant in my hand returned to his neck just now?"

"Huh? What happened? Weren't you standing there the whole time?"

Hearing this, Chu Xin looked down. The pendant had indeed returned to the skeleton's neck, but she remembered clearly that it had still been in Gu Sheng's palm when she had stood on tiptoe and waved her hand. Gu Sheng had been standing the entire time and had no chance to put it back on, so how had it returned? Could there be a...

The little girl instinctively shrank back. Although she had trained up some courage, she was still very timid when faced with strange phenomena.

"Take it and move farther away!"

Gu Sheng bent down and removed the Nine Cauldrons again. He placed it in Chu Xin's palm, then pushed her several steps away. Afterward, he lowered his head and stared intently at Wei Dan's neck with his tiger-like eyes.

"This..."

After receiving the Nine Cauldrons, Chu Xin instantly froze just as Gu Sheng had before. She had also received a notification from the Lord God. This was one of their Main Quests in this world—the key node of The Nine Cauldrons World.

"Hmm~"

Gu Sheng lowered his head and stared at Wei Dan's neck, his eyes shining brightly without the slightest slackening. After about fifteen minutes, his vision suddenly blurred. When it cleared again, a small cauldron pendant was quietly hanging around Wei Dan's neck.

"Ah! Why is it gone?"

Chu Xin cried out as though awakening from a dream and stared at her little hands, looking left and right.

"It's over there!"

Gu Sheng turned his head toward her and pointed at the spot on Wei Dan's chest.

"Gu Sheng, what is going on?"

Chu Xin felt her scalp go numb, and her whole body prickled with unease. Rubbing her hands, she came to Gu Sheng's side and looked at the Nine Cauldrons, her earlier delight already gone.

She thought it was far too strange. She had just been happy to find a key node, yet it had suddenly vanished without warning. It had happened in an instant, and she had no memory of exactly how.