Cauldron Vessel Opportunity

Upon hearing the Cauldron Venerable's thunderous voice, Chen Lingxi looked toward the Purple True Treasure Bottle in the heavens, and suddenly everything became clear.

The shattered clues he had pieced together earlier were now strung together by the words, "Sacrifice thirty-five lives to nurture the Purple True Treasure Bottle."

Like an invisible thread, they threaded each scattered bead together, one by one!

"The Crown Prince enjoys beast fighting and often holds Beast-Fighting Banquets."

Chen Lingxi calculated swiftly in his heart. These banquets are held inside a Cauldron Artifact Fragment. The noble heirs drink and make merry in the halls outside, while the fighting beasts are driven into this cauldron vessel to slaughter one another in desperate battles.

They very likely cannot see the struggles within this palace at all.

The more he considered it, the clearer it became.

In ordinary beast fights in the capital, what the nobles want to see is life-or-death slaughter.

But within this Cauldron Artifact Fragment, separated by the divide between illusion and reality, they very likely cannot see the scenes within the palace at all. At most, they only learn the outcome of the beast fight.

If so, how can it still be called a Beast-Fighting Banquet? This Crown Prince... his fondness for beast fighting and these Beast-Fighting Banquets are false. Using them as an excuse to seek martial artists to sacrifice to this Beast-Fighting Palace and nurture the Purple True Treasure Bottle—that is the truth.

His gaze sharpened further as he continued to deduce.

As for this Qiu Chihu...

Chen Lingxi's gaze suddenly fell on the Spirit-Qi Jade Pearl.

This treasure pearl most likely contains the Crown Prince's spirit qi. His eyes burned brightly. After Qiu Chihu won the beast fight, he used the Crown Prince's spirit qi together with his own blood to sacrifice to the Cauldron Venerable, in exchange for a Cauldron Vessel opportunity.

This is some form of grace bestowed by the Crown Prince! Yunhe Commandery Princess, Yang Zhuri, and Chu Linzi have very likely all received this opportunity from the Crown Prince—this grace of the Cauldron Venerable!

In that brief instant, Chen Lingxi seemed to have figured out many things.

He once more looked toward the heroic face hanging in midair, his eyes flickering.

Then can the Crown Prince truly see everything that happens within this cauldron vessel?

Chen Lingxi gently shook his head, and his gaze settled into calmness.

In that case, I will test whether this Crown Prince has truly taken complete control of this cauldron vessel, whether he can truly see all that happens within it.

He raised his right hand. A wisp of spirit qi still curled between his index and middle fingers.

What I have in common with the Crown Prince lies in this spirit qi...

The spirit qi I cultivate may become my chance at survival.

With that thought, Chen Lingxi finally hesitated no longer. His consciousness abruptly connected with his Divine Chamber.

"Total Perception!"

He silently recited those two words, and the Divine Chamber in his mind suddenly lit up.

Within the void of the Divine Chamber, Twin Luminous Mirrors abruptly emerged. One blazed gold like the great sun, while the other shone silver-white like the bright moon. At the same time, they cast down resplendent pillars of light upon the body condensed from his consciousness, enveloping his entire figure in intertwined gold and white radiance.

The void before his eyes seemed to shatter.

Chen Lingxi fell into the Divine Chamber, then slowly opened his eyes.

The world within this Divine Chamber was exactly the same as the Beast-Fighting Palace where he stood.

The mountains and rivers shared the same forms, the vegetation the same colors. The jade bottle in the sky also hung high above, purple light cascading down like a waterfall.

The only difference was the two luminous mirrors suspended high in the heavens, far higher even than the treasure bottle.

Chen Lingxi glanced at the Twin Luminous Mirrors in the sky, then looked toward the face hanging in midair. He took a deep breath and bowed deeply, his posture respectful yet composed.

"Cauldron Venerable above!"

At last, the gaze of that face fell upon him.

That gaze was neither sharp nor fierce, merely an utterly ordinary look. Yet it caused Chen Lingxi's spirit qi to falter slightly throughout his body, as though he had been swept over from head to toe.

Even the Azure Qi in his dantian and the Silver Marrow blood and qi surging through his meridians had nowhere to hide beneath that glance.

"The victor of the beast fight shall receive a Cauldron Vessel opportunity! Upon what shall the opportunity descend?" the Cauldron Venerable spoke again.

Chen Lingxi pondered for a moment before finally taking a small musk-deer hide pouch from his belt.

He held the hide pouch in both hands and raised it above his head. In a clear voice, he said, "Cauldron Vessel opportunity, please descend here."

As his words fell, the heroic face showed no expression. Its lips merely moved faintly, as though silently chanting something.

In the next instant, the ancient aura surging between heaven and earth abruptly swelled, rushing toward Chen Lingxi like water bursting through a broken dam and wrapping around his entire body.

The ancient aura poured into the musk-deer hide pouch in his hands.

That pouch had originally been nothing more than an ordinary piece of young musk-deer hide, softened and sewn together. It did not even bear a proper decorative pattern.

Yet now, as it hovered over Chen Lingxi's palm, it began to glow with a faint azure light.

That azure light was exceedingly gentle and pale, like the downy hue on the tenderest willow buds in spring. It flowed ceaselessly over the pouch's surface.

Chen Lingxi waited for a while. Only after the azure light had completely sunk into the pouch did he grasp it in his hand again.

"What changed?"

Filled with doubt, Chen Lingxi activated his spirit qi, guiding it through his meridians into his palm and then into the small musk-deer hide pouch.

The instant his spirit qi entered the pouch, his whole body shuddered.

Under the probing of his spirit qi, there was actually a space inside the pouch.

That space was square and even—six feet long, six feet wide, and six feet high—enough to hold who knew how many things!

Chen Lingxi tried storing several medicinal pills inside.

His spirit qi linked with the silver-white pills. Three breaths later, the pills had been placed within the pouch.

Chen Lingxi was both shocked and delighted, recalling three words he had seen in novels in his previous life.

"It actually became a Universe Bag?"

He murmured softly.

Just then.

Before Chen Lingxi could carefully savor the wondrous uses of this Universe Bag, another change arose.

The thirty-five rays of light above his head had originally hung there, turning slowly. But now, as though drawn by something, they no longer circled in place. Instead, they all flew upward toward the lustrous white jade bottle in the heavens.

The rays formed a winding river of light and poured into the purple waterfall spilling from the mouth of that jade bottle.

Several tiny fragments fell from within the purple waterfall and joined the river of light. The fragments then transformed into dense purple qi, merging with the waterfall.

The moment Chen Lingxi saw those purple fragments, he knew they were no different from the Purple True Treasure Aura Fragment he had refined.

Understanding dawned on him at once.

Most of the Purple True Treasure Aura Fragments on Inlaid Gold Mountain must have been reclaimed by the Crown Prince and returned to this treasure bottle.

When Lin Suri went to Inlaid Gold Mountain, the Crown Prince was likely still unconscious. The amount of purple qi remaining in the mountain was impossible to estimate. What Lin Suri obtained was merely one portion of it, precisely the amount he himself could control.

And the peanut-sized piece I acquired was likely only a fish that slipped through the net. It accidentally fell into a crack between rocks and escaped the Crown Prince's search.

As he thought of this, he could not help feeling a measure of relief.

This can be considered my opportunity after all.

While his thoughts churned, the thirty-five rays of light had already completely merged into the Purple True Treasure Aura.

The jade bottle in the heavens trembled faintly once. The lustrous white glow of its body seemed to grow a little richer, while the purple waterfall cascading down from it became slightly thicker than before.

At that moment, the Beast-Fighting Palace abruptly changed.

A gateway silently appeared in the void not far away.

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath, raised his head to glance at the Twin Luminous Mirrors hanging high in the sky, then walked toward the gateway.

When he reached it, he pushed hard, and the door opened without a sound.

Beyond it lay a deep passageway, identical to the passage through which he had entered.

At the end of the passage was the first door—the vermilion-red gate.

Chen Lingxi took a deep breath and stepped into the corridor.

At the corridor's end, the vermilion gate slowly swung open.

The towering main hall outside remained magnificent and resplendent. Brocade curtains glimmered faintly in the candlelight, while the lapis lazuli bricks shone brightly enough to reflect a person's face.

The old eunuch walked in from outside the door to receive him.

He still looked silent as a puppet. No joy or anger could be seen on the face of this man in his fifties, and his dragon-patterned robe gave off a deep, dim sheen beneath the candlelight.

Yet... when he saw Chen Lingxi, the old eunuch's pupils finally contracted slightly before returning to calm.

"Strange."