Volume's End: Faith from a Thousand Years Ago

The next day, in the mountain god's temple on Flying Peak.

Beyond the main hall stood a cluster of residential buildings covering several hundred square meters.

In a small, separately enclosed courtyard to the right of those buildings, Xiluo was talking with Li Boyang and Big Girl.

"So that Ox-Head left without saying anything?"

After staring at Li Boyang with a strange expression for a long while, Xiluo finally lowered her voice and asked.

"And he even left this huge headache with you?"

Following Xiluo's gaze, one could see the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron standing right in the center of the courtyard.

Alchemical fire that seemed as though it could never burn itself out was blazing inside the Pill Furnace.

"To be precise, it should be called spoils of war."

Though he corrected Xiluo's wording, Li Boyang also looked at the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron with some concern.

For a normal protagonist, whether this thing was useful or not, even keeping it as a collectible would have been fine.

Unfortunately, Li Boyang never overestimated his own abilities.

Nor did he like collecting dangerous objects that were obviously "bombs" at a glance.

Even a ghost god that had died young had been so difficult to deal with, let alone the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron capable of refining such a ghost god.

When Li Boyang opened the third eye between his brows, he could clearly see multicolored Original Qi pouring into the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron.

That unceasing alchemical fire burned with this Original Qi as its fuel.

Thinking of the black mist that had poured out after the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron tipped over, Li Boyang felt as though he were holding a time bomb.

If the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron tipped over again, living beings really would be plunged into misery.

In fact, it was precisely because of this concern that Li Boyang had chosen to place the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron on Flying Peak.

At the very least, Xiluo was here to help keep an eye on it-even if this mountain god was not particularly reliable either.

"I don't know if I'm imagining it, but I keep feeling as though this thing is alive..."

Li Boyang reached out and slapped Big Girl's hand as she tried to touch the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron, then shot her an annoyed glare.

Big Girl was carrying Li Boyang on her back, so he could clearly see everything she did.

"Alive?"

Looking at Li Boyang in surprise, Xiluo blinked in slight confusion.

"Mm, not alive like a living creature..."

"It's more the feeling of a treasure having a spirit. It feels to me as though it's choosing its own master."

"If you force this Imprisoned Soul Cauldron into use without gaining its recognition, you'll most likely end up like You Xiao..."

After hearing what Li Boyang said, Xiluo looked at the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron again with a more wary gaze.

A powerful treasure and a treasure that actively brought misfortune upon its owner naturally could not be treated the same way.

Even Xiluo, with her collecting habit, kept a respectful distance from such treasures.

"Then why did you bring it back?"

"Aren't you afraid it'll set my Flying Peak on fire one day too?"

Staring at Li Boyang with wide eyes, Xiluo spoke in a voice full of complaint.

"There was no other choice. You couldn't expect me to leave this Imprisoned Soul Cauldron lying in Black Cloud Marsh, could you?"

Li Boyang's voice was still childish, but his expression was unusually firm.

"Besides, this Imprisoned Soul Cauldron wasn't You Xiao's treasure alone."

"According to that Ox-Head, this Imprisoned Soul Cauldron is a supreme national treasure of the Guifang Kingdom..."

"If we don't hide it, heaven knows what dangerous figures it might attract."

As he said this, Li Boyang lightly tossed the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron in his hand into the air, then caught it.

"Will it really attract someone dangerous?"

Looking at the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron lying faceup, Xiluo's eyes widened even further.

"It would have attracted some formidable figures before, but the risk is lower now."

Gazing thoughtfully at the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron in his hand as well, Li Boyang gave an answer that was less than certain.

This was where the shortcomings of the Heavenly Mandate Bone Plastron, a divine divination artifact, became apparent.

Li Boyang knew nothing about the Guifang Kingdom, nor did he know the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron's precise origins or abilities.

Thus, his divination could only use himself as its reference point to predict whether the Imprisoned Soul Cauldron would bring danger upon him and Flying Peak.

As for more detailed information?

Only if Li Boyang truly mastered the Nine Chapters on the Secrets of Divination and acquired the knowledge and ability to see through appearances to the underlying essence could he perform further divinations and predictions.

"What exactly was You Xiao's situation?"

"And what sort of position was that high priest of the Guifang Kingdom?"

"By all common sense, with a supreme national treasure in his possession, there's no way he could have disappeared for so long without anyone looking for him, is there?"

Xiluo's confusion was also Li Boyang's question.

Why had You Xiao been missing for so long, yet no one from the Guifang Kingdom had ever come looking for this high priest?

"You Xiao... seems to have been a traitor to the Guifang Kingdom?"

His gaze gradually deepened, and at that moment, Li Boyang's Primordial Spirit reflected his memories from before his rebirth.

Back then, Li Boyang had only just transmigrated into this unfamiliar world when You Xiao ran a sword through his heart, then brutally cut off his head.

In the instant before his death, Li Boyang seemed to have seen panic and astonishment on You Xiao's face.

Clearly, You Xiao had never expected anyone to appear in the mountain forest where he was hiding.

What You Xiao had expected even less was that this newcomer was not a pursuer from the Guifang Kingdom, but a mortal without even the strength to truss a chicken, who looked even frailer than an ordinary mountain villager.

After that, Li Boyang's memories transitioned seamlessly to the time when he was refined into the Divine Firmament Sword's sword soul.

His Primordial Spirit could help Li Boyang sort through his past memories, but it could not fabricate memories that did not exist out of thin air.

During the stretch between the death of his physical body and his becoming a sword soul.

Li Boyang had been unconscious the entire time, so naturally, he could not know what exactly had happened during that period.

"A traitor to the Guifang Kingdom?"

"A kingdom's high priest became a traitor?"

Xiluo did not doubt Li Boyang's judgment; she was simply shocked by this outrageous news.

"Stop making such a fuss over everything..."

"Why don't you tell me what exactly the Guifang Kingdom is like?"

He interrupted Xiluo's shock with considerable helplessness.

All Li Boyang wanted now was more information and intelligence concerning the Guifang Kingdom.

The more he learned about this world, the more Li Boyang realized that it differed from every era he knew.

Even now, he could not be certain whether the Guifang Kingdom and the Hundred Lands Mountain Range, where he currently was, had any relationship of rule and subordination.

Or, more precisely, which power did the mountain villages around the Hundred Lands Mountain Range actually belong to?

"You know I haven't left this place in a long time. What I know about the Guifang Kingdom still dates back a thousand years..."

"Back then, the Guifang Kingdom was still just the Guifang Tribe, a small tribe devoted exclusively to worshipping the Roaring Heaven Clan that my elder sister encountered during her migration..."