Forging the Chaos Bell

The deity of the lung divine treasury manifested, taking the form of an illusory little white tiger.

Mist shrouded the world within his body. With the white tiger leading the way, he soon sensed a gentle, nourishing aura.

The kidney divine treasury!

Jiang Zhu closed his eyes and focused, driving the methods of the Dao Scripture to their utmost as the five qi churned within him like raging dragons.

Once the lung divine treasury reached perfection, vast vital essence poured down like a celestial river in reverse, rushing straight toward the kidney divine treasury.

Boundless vital essence gathered. The roar of a surging ocean seemed to rise within his dao palace, water vapor billowed, and the figure of a black dragon emerged from the divine treasury.

The divine treasury rapidly reached perfection. At last, the black dragon deity manifested and roared toward the heavens.

When the phenomenon faded, the five great divine treasuries finally formed a complete cycle, and the five qi returned to their source.

Washed by the vital essence of divine source, Jiang Zhu's body took on a crystalline sheen. His trembling bones rang with the clash of metal, as though every one of them had been hammered and tempered a thousand times.

His blood surged like boiling mercury. As his five viscera trembled, dragon cries, tiger roars, and other sounds faintly emerged. The divine voices of the five great deities intertwined and resonated endlessly, filling the ancient mine tunnel with cracks.

At last, the abandoned mine tunnel could bear no more and collapsed with a thunderous crash. Amid the dust, only a lone figure remained standing in midair, galaxies seeming to perish whenever his eyes opened and closed.

He exhaled, scattering the dust that filled the sky and revealing a figure with flowing wide sleeves, like an immortal.

"The dao palace secret realm is perfected. I'm only one step away from the four extremes secret realm!" Jiang Zhu felt some regret that he had failed to break through to the four extremes in one sustained push.

"Forget it. If I can't break through, it just means I haven't fought enough. A few more battles, and I'll soon reach the four extremes!"

After this period of cultivation, the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda had also been completely melted down. Next, he needed to incorporate all of it into his artifact.

Controlling the Demon-Refining Pot, Jiang Zhu drew out the chaos qi he had obtained from Kunlun and guided it into chaos flame. Only once the flames blazed fiercely did he put in the divine mark purple gold and the artifact forged from divine markings.

The chaos flame burned fiercely as the molten divine mark purple gold was continually refined and fused into the artifact.

Time flew by. A purple bell half a person's height finally took shape, its entire body crystalline as purple diamond and densely covered in natural dao patterns that seemed to engrave the laws of heaven and earth. Chaos qi wreathed it, lending it a trace of the Chaos Bell's mystique. It was wondrous beyond compare.

As the chaos flame gradually died out, Jiang Zhu willed the purple Chaos Bell to float before him.

He reached out and flicked it lightly.

Dong!

A lingering bell tone rang out, mysterious and profound, and a purple wave instantly spread outward.

The collapsed ancient mine tunnel crumbled to dust and vanished completely, leaving only a stone platform behind.

Jiang Zhu was beside himself with delight. "Excellent! As expected of an emperor-grade divine material. Truly extraordinary, nothing like ordinary materials! It can undergo heavenly tribulation with me next!"

The stone village.

A big black dog was breathing in and out the spiritual vitality of heaven and earth, the essence of the sun and moon continually flowing into his glossy black body.

"Black Emperor, want an innate sacred body dao embryo?"

At those words, Black Emperor immediately sprang up and rushed to Jiang Zhu's side, opening his enormous, blood-red maw. "You brat, you've seen an innate sacred body dao embryo? Where? Tell this emperor at once!"

"I know the whereabouts of a desolate ancient sacred body and an innate dao embryo, but..." Jiang Zhu hesitated.

"But what? What dirty scheme are you cooking up now?" Black Emperor eyed Jiang Zhu warily.

"I can take you to find them. All I ask for is some Demon Clan blood. White tiger, true phoenix, qilin, things like that will do."

Black Emperor stared, dumbfounded. What did he mean, white tiger, true phoenix, and things like that would do? Did those creatures even still exist?

"You black-hearted brat! Where am I supposed to find blood like that for you? How about I give you some more of my blood instead?"

"Seriously? Didn't you follow a Great Emperor? You don't even have any of that?" Contempt appeared on Jiang Zhu's face.

Black Emperor fumed. Even the Great Emperor had never seen the creatures Jiang Zhu had named. How could he have left any of their blood for him?

He paced in circles around Jiang Zhu. "Though this emperor has none of that true blood, I know of a Demon Clan Tomb where quite a few powerful members of the Demon Clan lie buried. If you can retrieve their remains, refining their blood essence should suffice."

"But that place... heh heh. Even three Saints met their end there."

Jiang Zhu's eyes flashed like lightning. What a great place! I knew Black Emperor still had plenty worth squeezing out of him.

"Not enough. Add blood from all kinds of dog demons!"

Black Emperor was just about to bargain when Jiang Zhu turned to leave.

"Fine, this emperor agrees. But what do you need so much demon blood for? Don't tell me you're cultivating that Great Emperor's technique?" Catching a crucial detail, he looked at Jiang Zhu suspiciously.

"No. I'm just using demon blood to temper my body!"

"Ah, what a pity. This emperor also knows of a cultivation sanctuary belonging to that Great Emperor. There might even be powerful secret treasures inside!"

Black Emperor was still probing Jiang Zhu. If he was that Great Emperor's successor and intended to seize the innate sacred body dao embryo's origin, things would turn ugly. For the sake of the Great Emperor's successor, he had to see through Jiang Zhu's true colors today!

"Oh? What sort of treasures?"

Jiang Zhu understood what treasure he meant, but kept his expression unchanged and pretended not to know.

"An incomparably powerful treasure! They say it was forged from that Great Emperor's body, with boundless might..." Black Emperor went on and on.

"Oh, the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar! Hasn't someone already dug that up?" Jiang Zhu feigned confusion, but his words dealt Black Emperor a crushing blow.

"Huh? What? Woof!" Big Black Dog's brass-bell eyes nearly popped out of his head, and he could barely speak coherently.

"Yes, the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar! Apparently, one of the Thirteen Great Bandits of the Northern Region picked up a jar beside a dried-up ancient riverbed. Who would have thought it was the Devouring Heaven Demon Jar that shook the Desolate Ancient Era?"

The killing blow!

A jar picked up beside a dried-up ancient riverbed. A jar he picked up. Picked up.

Jiang Zhu's words looped endlessly through Black Emperor's mind like a demonic chant.

"Awooo..." Big Black Dog let out a wolf's howl, as mournful as could be.

"Where did he pick it up?" Big Black Dog asked, unwilling to accept it.

"They say he picked it up beside a riverbed outside the Cloudbreak Mountains."

"Woof, woof, woof... awooo... woof!" Big Black Dog could not take it anymore. He raced around the hilltop, howling like a wolf and barking like a dog without stopping.

Black Emperor could not withstand the shock. He was about to cough up blood. Utterly deflated, he raised his head and howled at the sky. "There's no fucking justice! How is this emperor supposed to live with this?!"

Back then, to excavate the Demon Jar, he had risked life and limb and spent years trapped in Ruthless's cultivation sanctuary without so much as glimpsing its shadow. Now someone else had simply picked it up.

It was like pursuing the girl of his dreams for years, fussing over her and showering her with gifts, yet never even getting to touch her hand-only to turn around and learn that someone else had already made it to third base with her!

All he could do was kneel on the ground, throw back his head, and howl.

"No!!!"

A true lapdog!

After a long while, Big Black Dog recovered and said, "You mean that damned bandit only picked up the Demon Jar and didn't get the Jar Lid?"

"No. There's only one Demon Jar in the world right now. I haven't heard of anyone having the jar."

"Good!"

Black Emperor breathed a sigh of relief. "The Jar Lid is the true essence of it. Legend says it was forged from the Great Emperor's skull with immortal materials, and bears the imprint of the primordial spirit. The 'demon' in Demon Jar is embodied entirely in the Jar Lid. That is the source of its greatest power."

"This emperor must get the Jar Lid! Then I'll go find that damned bandit!"

Watching Black Emperor glimpse a sliver of hope amid his despair, Jiang Zhu pressed his lips together. In the end, he still did not reveal that crushing truth.