Cauldron Artifact Opportunity

Upon hearing the Cauldron Venerable's thunderous voice, Chen Lingxi looked toward the Purple True Treasure Bottle high in the sky, and his mind suddenly cleared.

The fragmented clues he had sorted through moments ago were now strung together by the words, "Sacrifice thirty-five lives to nourish the Purple True Treasure Bottle."

Like an invisible thread, they pierced those scattered beads one by one!

"The Crown Prince enjoyed beast-fighting and often held beast-fighting banquets."

Chen Lingxi calculated swiftly in his heart. "These banquets were held within fragments of a cauldron artifact. The noble young masters drank and made merry in the halls outside, while the fighting beasts were driven into this cauldron artifact to slaughter one another in desperate combat.

They were very likely unable to see the battles within this palace at all."

The more he considered it, the clearer everything became.

"In ordinary capital beast-fights, what the nobles wished to see was a life-and-death struggle.

But within this cauldron artifact fragment, separated by the divide between reality and illusion, they most likely could not see the scenes within the palace at all. At most, they would only know the results of the fights.

If so, how could it count as a beast-fighting banquet? This Crown Prince... his fondness for beast-fighting and the beast-fighting banquets were merely a pretense. His true purpose was to use them as an excuse to find warriors to sacrifice to this Beast-Fighting Palace and nourish the Purple True Treasure Bottle."

His gaze sharpened further as he continued his deductions.

"As for this Qiu Chihu..."

Chen Lingxi's gaze suddenly fell upon the spirit qi jade bead.

"This pearl most likely contains the Crown Prince's spirit qi." His eyes burned. "When 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 artifact opportunity.

This was some form of grace bestowed by the Crown Prince! Yunhe Commandery Princess, Yang Zhuri, and Chu Linzi had most likely all received this opportunity from the Crown Prince, this grace of the Cauldron Venerable!"

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

He looked once more at the heroic face suspended in midair, his eyes flickering.

"Then could the Crown Prince truly see everything that happened within this cauldron artifact?"

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

"In that case, I shall test whether the Crown Prince has complete control over this cauldron artifact, whether he can truly see all that happens within it."

He raised his right hand. A wisp of spirit qi still lingered 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 path to survival."

With that thought, Chen Lingxi finally stopped hesitating. His consciousness abruptly connected to the Divine Chamber.

"Total Perception!"

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

Within the void of the Divine Chamber, two bright mirrors suddenly appeared. One was blazing gold like the great sun, the other silver-white like the brilliant moon. At the same time, they cast down magnificent pillars of light upon the body condensed from his consciousness, enveloping his entire person in interwoven 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 heavens and earth within this Divine Chamber were exactly the same as the Beast-Fighting Palace where he stood.

The mountains and rivers shared the same shape, the plants and trees the same colors, and the jade bottle in the sky hung just as high, pouring down purple light like a waterfall.

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

Chen Lingxi glanced at the two bright mirrors in the sky, then at the face suspended in midair. He took a deep breath, then bowed deeply in worship, his bearing respectful yet composed.

"Cauldron Venerable above!"

At last, the face's gaze fell upon him.

That gaze was neither sharp nor fierce. It was merely a plain, unremarkable look, yet Chen Lingxi's spirit qi stalled 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 qi rushing through his meridians had nowhere to hide beneath that single glance.

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

Chen Lingxi considered for a moment, then finally took out the small musk-deer hide pouch from his belt.

He held the pouch in both hands and raised it above his head. "Cauldron artifact opportunity, please descend upon this."

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

Then, the ancient aura surging between heaven and earth suddenly swelled, rushing toward Chen Lingxi like water bursting through a broken dam and wrapping him within.

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

The pouch had originally been nothing more than an ordinary piece of young musk-deer hide, softened and sewn together, without even a proper pattern upon it.

Yet now, as it hovered in Chen Lingxi's palm, it gave off a faint azure glow.

That azure light was exceedingly soft and pale, like the downy hue upon the tenderest willow buds in spring. It flowed endlessly across 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 again.

"What changed?"

Puzzled, Chen Lingxi circulated his spirit qi, guiding it through his meridians into his palm and pouring it into the small young musk-deer hide pouch.

The instant the spirit qi entered the pouch, his entire body trembled.

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

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

Chen Lingxi tried placing those pills inside.

His spirit qi connected with the silver-white pills. Three breaths later, the pills had been stored in 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 spatial pouch?"

He murmured softly.

At that moment—

Before Chen Lingxi could savor the wondrous uses of this spatial pouch, another change arose.

The thirty-five lights above his head had originally hovered there, slowly circling. Yet now, as if drawn by something, they ceased circling and flew upward together, toward the gleaming white jade bottle in the sky.

The lights formed a winding river of radiance and poured into the purple waterfall spilling from the mouth of the jade bottle.

Several tiny fragments fell from within the purple waterfall, merging with the lights. Then the fragments transformed into dense purple qi and blended into the waterfall.

The moment Chen Lingxi saw those purple fragments, he knew they were identical to the fragments of Purple True Treasure Aura he had refined.

He immediately understood.

"Most of the Purple True Treasure Aura fragments on Inlaid Gold Mountain must have been retrieved 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 lingering purple qi in the mountain had been impossible to estimate, and what he obtained had merely been a portion of it, precisely the amount he himself could control.

As for the peanut-sized fragment I obtained, it was likely only a fish that slipped through the net. It accidentally fell into a crack in the rocks and escaped the Crown Prince's search."

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

"It counted as my own opportunity, then."

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

The jade bottle in the sky trembled slightly. Its gleaming white luster seemed to grow a little more lustrous, while the purple waterfall pouring down from it became slightly thicker than before.

At that very moment, the Beast-Fighting Palace suddenly changed.

A doorway silently appeared in the void not far away.

Chen Lingxi drew a deep breath, raised his head to look at the two bright mirrors hanging high in the sky, then strode toward the doorway.

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

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

At the end of the passage stood 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 opened wide.

Outside the gate, the towering main hall remained resplendent in gold and jade. Brocade curtains gleamed faintly in the candlelight, and the lapis lazuli bricks shone brightly enough to reflect a person.

The old eunuch entered from outside the door to receive him.

He still looked as silent as a wooden puppet. No joy or anger could be seen upon his fifty-something face, and his dragon-patterned robe gave off a deep, dark gleam beneath the candlelight.

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

"Strange."

The old eunuch muttered softly.