Tianshu Bottle

Late at night, Furnace Mountain lay desolate and eerie beneath the starlight.

After swallowing and exhaling precious pills during the day, it had fallen into an unnatural stillness. The lava within the spiderweb-like cracks across the mountain had dimmed, and the fire-aspect Mystic Qi in midair had almost entirely withdrawn.

Xu Yan proceeded with utmost caution, extending his divine sense to its limit and covering an area of eighty zhang around him.

Only after confirming that no one was nearby did he step on Mystic Qi, rise into the air, and land at the edge of the furnace mouth.

Xu Yan narrowed his eyes and peered into the pitch-black depths below.

The Edict Script in his palm gave off a faint scorching heat.

The Taiyi God-Lock Array had already repaired seventy to eighty percent of its array patterns on its own, cutting off much of the treasure aura below. Yet Xu Yan's Edict Script could still sense it—and more intensely than before.

"It has to be at least a thousand zhang deep. There are even killing arrays lying in wait along the inner walls beneath the furnace..."

Xu Yan frowned and did not rashly descend.

His divine sense first entered the [Wondrous Method] Edict Script in his left palm. Streams of Primordial Mystic Qi mixed with his divine sense spread outward like ripples, shrouding the array patterns of the Taiyi God-Lock Array.

Using Mystic Gate methods to break the array was clearly far easier than what they had done during the day.

But Xu Yan was alone at the moment. Using divine sense to unravel the array patterns was truly time-consuming and exhausting.

His head swam.

With the aid of the Wondrous Method Edict Script, Xu Yan spent more than an hour before finally dismantling the Taiyi God-Lock Array, which had only just been seventy to eighty percent restored.

Afterward, he rested for a while until his divine sense had fully recovered.

Xu Yan took a step forward and stood suspended at the center of the furnace mouth. Maintaining an exceedingly cautious posture, he slowly descended.

At the same time, he did not relax his control over the Miaoyuan Edict in his palm. Xu Yan drove it to its limit, overlooking not a single trace of spatial energy in any direction. At the slightest anomaly, he would be able to detect it and stop immediately.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

A slightly warm spiritual wind brushed past his ears.

Xu Yan's Dao body grew faintly feverish, and his blood and qi began to churn on their own.

"The energies beneath this furnace are far too mixed. All phenomena are present..."

Xu Yan's gaze darkened as he thought to himself.

After descending more than a hundred zhang, Xu Yan was completely swallowed by darkness. The energies were so vast that even the starlight from outside could no longer reach this place. For a time, he could not see his own hand before his face.

Xu Yan brought out the Wenjin Shuttle.

With a slight surge of Primordial Mystic Qi, the Wenjin Shuttle's power swelled instantly, bursting with a flowing golden radiance that illuminated the furnace interior.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Proceeding cautiously, Xu Yan continued downward for another five hundred zhang before abruptly stopping.

On the inner wall twenty zhang below, a dense circle of Edict Scripts had been engraved. Killing intent lurked on every side!

Xu Yan slapped his Qiankun Bag, and the Green Pattern Dharma Sword shot out with a howl, streaking downward.

In an instant, those array patterns were activated, erupting with countless sharp Sword Qi that struck the Green Pattern Dharma Sword until it hummed violently.

Xu Yan immediately recalled the Dharma sword.

If it took a few more hits, even the body of the Green Pattern Dharma Sword, a high-grade Dharma artifact, would be unable to endure.

[<Sword Forest Ancient Array: Over three hundred array patterns remain. They interlink and crisscross one another. One wrong step, and there will be no redemption for all eternity.>]

Under the Edict Script's appraisal, Xu Yan drew a deep breath, his eyes fixed tightly upon the array patterns engraved into the inner wall.

He seemed to have reached some conclusion. The Wenjin Shuttle suddenly struck the inner wall to one side.

Bang!

The inner wall was extremely sturdy. Even Xu Yan's Wenjin Shuttle only chipped out a mark the size of a fist.

Xu Yan did not give up. He formed a sword sign with two fingers, expanded his divine sense, and drove the Wenjin Shuttle to assault the inner wall in a storm of attacks. After the time it took an incense stick to burn, he finally carved out a small cave entrance large enough to hold one person.

Xu Yan immediately descended and sat cross-legged.

"To unravel this killing array, I'll have to spend quite some time."

Xu Yan thought to himself.

With nowhere to set foot, his Mystic Qi would soon be depleted. It would be better to carve out a cave here and unravel the array in peace.

After entering the cave on the inner wall, Xu Yan sat cross-legged, gazed down below, and activated the Edict Script with his divine sense.

This killing array was far too complex. More than three hundred array patterns interlinked with each other, their operational paths practically endless. To fully deduce a safe route would consume an enormous amount of divine sense.

"If I use the Edict Script directly to break these Edict Scripts, there doesn't seem to be enough time."

Xu Yan calculated inwardly.

He did not waste time. He began observing the spatial energies of the killing array below, occasionally sending out the Wenjin Shuttle to probe, attempting to find a safe path.

Clang, clang, clang!

The Wenjin Shuttle descended, only to be struck again and again by the Sword Qi bursting from the killing array. Fortunately, the Wenjin Shuttle was a Spirit-Born Embryo Artifact, forged from metal of the Five Elements. Had it been the Green Pattern Dharma Sword, it would have already been shattered by the ancient array.

In this way, it could also be considered a form of tempering for the Wenjin Shuttle.

Time slipped away bit by bit.

Three days passed silently. At the mouth of the Heaven and Earth Furnace, the Taiyi God-Lock Array had fully repaired itself once again, and a thin wall of Dharmic light covered the entrance.

More than six hundred zhang beneath the inner furnace.

Xu Yan sat with his eyes tightly shut, his brow faintly furrowed.

Within the Sword Forest Ancient Array below, the Wenjin Shuttle flashed continuously beneath its flowing golden glow, evading the Sword Qi. Half the time it took an incense stick to burn later, it successfully swept past the area shrouded by the Sword Forest Ancient Array!

At the same time, Xu Yan did not hesitate in the slightest.

His eyes flew open. Mystic Qi erupted from his entire body as he stepped on Chaos Step and flashed downward.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—

In an instant, the densely packed Sword Forest array patterns across the inner walls flashed. Countless streaks of fierce sword light flickered past, grazing Xu Yan's Dao body. Each looked perilously close, as though it might strike him at any moment.

Yet everything was within Xu Yan's expectations.

Within several breaths, he had swept through the ancient array without suffering the slightest injury.

"Whew..."

Drawing in a deep breath, Xu Yan looked back over his shoulder with lingering fear.

Though he had probed for three days and was confident in his calculations, who knew whether the ancient array might suddenly change? Fortunately, no mishap occurred.

After passing through the killing array, Xu Yan swallowed a Primal Qi Pill.

He narrowed his eyes and descended with faint anticipation. No more killing arrays lay in wait beneath the furnace.

Stepping on Mystic Qi, he used his divine sense to control the Wenjin Shuttle, making it burst with brilliant light and illuminate the entire space beneath the furnace.

Gradually, he seemed to reach the furnace floor. It was a space only twenty zhang wide. The ground was incomparably damp, yet many lush spiritual herbs grew there, while mixed energies rippled through the air and beneath the earth.

Xu Yan focused his gaze and immediately spotted the spiritual treasure at the center!

It was a palm-sized azure bottle, half its body buried in the soil. Its mouth seemed to inhale and exhale the energies of heaven and earth, its spiritual light resembling a vortex as it was slowly absorbed by the azure bottle.

Xu Yan's eyes gleamed as his heart pounded. The Miaoyuan Edict in his palm grew hotter and hotter, and Xu Yan felt as though it were about to scorch his hand.

What was even more astonishing was that countless crisscrossing Dharmic patterns spread across the ground from the treasure bottle.

They seemed alive, swimming about as they emitted a faint silver glow.

As the azure bottle inhaled and exhaled, those Dharmic patterns continued to shift, like designs woven from starlight!

Xu Yan landed steadily.

After sensing his surroundings, he could hardly wait to approach the azure bottle and appraise it with the Edict Script.

[<Tianshu Bottle: Mystic Gate treasure. An imitation of the ancient primordial treasure "Creation Bottle," an artifact from the recent ancient era. Engraved within is the Spirit-Devouring Grand Array. It can independently absorb the energies of heaven, earth, sun, and moon, condensing Embryonic Pills that are flawless and immaculate.>]

"Tianshu Bottle, an imitation of the Creation Bottle?"

Xu Yan froze slightly.

There was only this one treasure bottle beneath the furnace. It was far simpler than Xu Yan had expected.

Xu Yan looked around and found no other hidden doors at the furnace floor.