The Seven Profound Saint Venerable left behind the bronze cauldron and placed the correct pattern in the Land of Eternal Life—it seemed he didn’t expect people from the Upper Cosmos to solve it.
Here’s the key point.
Was this meant to be left for people from the Land of Eternal Life?
But which warrior from the upper realm would be willing to come to the lower realm?
He Wudi came.
He was forced to come.
And he just happened to obtain the bronze cauldron and solve its mystery.
You couldn’t blame He Wudi for exaggerating his mind-filling. If you carefully sorted through everything, this really was a possibility.
It’s just that whether the various mysteries left by the Seven Profound Saint Venerable were truly as he imagined—that only heaven and earth knew.
Jun Changxiao didn’t dwell too much on this matter either.
At this moment, he was more concerned with what benefits the sect could gain now that they’d solved the bronze cauldron’s mystery.
“Wudi.”
Jun Changxiao commanded, “Unlock the bronze cauldron again and see if you can activate the scroll.”
“Yes.”
He Wudi walked to the martial arts field and placed both hands on the bronze cauldron, pressing his ear against it. Then he closed his eyes and carefully recalled the pattern in his consciousness sea, like a professional thief opening a safe.
“Buzz buzz!”
“Click!”
The hidden mechanism seemed to fit perfectly, and the mechanism inside the cauldron opened.
Everyone’s eyes widened.
They were waiting for the magical scroll to appear—perhaps they could also enter it in soul form and personally appreciate the Eternal Life Path.
The result… they waited for nothing.
“Strange.”
He Wudi said, “Why didn’t it appear?”
His unlocking route was no different from yesterday. Logically, he had successfully triggered the bronze cauldron, but the scroll hadn’t appeared as expected.
“So it seems.”
Jian Guixu stroked his chin and said, “It can probably only be activated once.”
“…”
The expression on He Wudi’s face immediately collapsed.
Although yesterday he had proclaimed loudly that if there was only one chance to return to the Land of Eternal Life, he wouldn’t regret staying behind, now that this was actually the reality, definitely… no, his heart hurt a bit.
Gou Sheng’s heart hurt too.
After spending so much time leading disciples through competitions.
Finally obtaining the bronze cauldron as hoped, only to find it was a one-time-use item—absolutely a huge loss!
“No, wait.”
Suddenly, Jun Changxiao’s eyes lit up as he said, “At least we know the coordinates, we know the location of the Eternal Life Path!”
Last night when their souls entered the scroll, although it seemed ethereal and illusory, the surrounding landscape was extraordinarily real. Since they couldn’t enter through the path in the painting, they could completely search for the path in reality.
“Bring me brush and ink!”
“Swish!”
Li Qingyang brought over brush, ink, paper, and inkstone.
“Swish swish!” Jun Changxiao picked up the brush and drew with flourishing strokes on the paper, clearly wanting to recreate the scene from his memory.
However.
When he finished, Li Qingyang looked at it carefully for a while and said, “Sect Master, what did you draw?”
“A map.”
“…”
Li Qingyang’s mouth twitched.
Liu Sinan and other high-level members gathered around and looked at the paper on the table, only to see it with utter confusion.
From Jun Changxiao’s perspective, it was a perfectly recreated map. Although it wasn’t very large overall, it had mountains, water, and forests—giving off a feeling of “my old home is in that village.”
However.
From Liu Sinan and the others’ perspective, the paper was completely blank with nothing on it.
“Bullshit!”
Jun Changxiao picked it up and said, “This seat clearly drew it!”
“Sect Master, there’s really nothing there!”
The high-level members and disciples said in unison.
“…”
Jun Changxiao naturally didn’t believe them and even thought they were conspiring to act against him. It wasn’t until Hua Meigui came over and said there was nothing that he realized perhaps only he could see the pattern on the paper?
He Wudi could see it.
However, he didn’t express this on the spot.
Instead, he thought silently, “So it seems that the pattern imprinted in the consciousness sea can only be seen by those who entered the scroll.”
But that wasn’t right either.
Jian Guixu and Gu Tianxing had also entered.
Not only could the two of them not see the pattern on the paper now, but even when recalling the scene they saw last night, no matter how hard they tried to remember, they couldn’t recall it. If they weren’t certain they had entered, they might suspect they had intermittent amnesia.
…
“Thud.”
In the great hall, Jun Changxiao plopped down, his face showing extreme despair.
He had originally planned to draw out the Eternal Life Path and make copies for each disciple. In the future, when they traveled to other star systems or planes, they might stumble upon it by chance. Now that plan was completely dead.
“Sect Master.”
He Wudi walked in and speculated, “This is probably a divine ability set by Senior Seven Profound. Only those who stayed in the scroll long enough can memorize the map’s terrain, while outsiders have no right to know.”
“The Upper Cosmos is so vast.”
Jun Changxiao said, “With only you and I knowing, how can we find a place in reality that matches it?”
“This disciple believes.”
He Wudi said with a serious expression, “Since Senior Seven Profound separately left the bronze cauldron and the pattern, he must have had profound intentions. What we can do is wait and see—perhaps… before long, the boat will naturally straighten when it reaches the bridge.”
“That makes sense.” Jun Changxiao felt relieved.
He Wudi said, “The bronze cauldron’s secret has been discovered. It should be worthless now. This disciple believes it can be taken for smelting.”
“Does ordinary material have smelting value?” Jun Changxiao said.
“A material’s value doesn’t depend on itself, but on its creator,” He Wudi said.
Upon hearing this, Jun Changxiao suddenly understood.
The bronze cauldron’s material was indeed mediocre. Without exaggeration, you could find the same material on any plane—it absolutely belonged to the common street variety. But since it was crafted by the Seven Profound Saint Venerable, it had tremendous value.
“If the host becomes the strongest in the Upper Cosmos, in many years, even the paper used to wipe your ass would be a priceless treasure to the world,” the System teased.
“Fine.”
Jun Changxiao stood up and said, “Send the bronze cauldron to the Casting Hall and let Hall Master Fan handle it.”
“Yes!”
He Wudi immediately walked out of the great hall.
However, when he looked toward the martial arts field, he found the bronze cauldron was gone.
“Where’s the cauldron!”
“How did it disappear!”
He Wudi immediately panicked.
Could it be that after solving the mystery inside, the cauldron would disappear after a certain time?
“Junior Brother He.”
Just then, Li Qingyang passed by and said, “Junior Sister Liu saw that the bronze cauldron had no value, so she had people carry it back to the cafeteria. It seems she plans to use it as a pot.”
“Nonsense!”
He Wudi said with a stern face, “That cauldron was crafted by Senior Seven Profound. Even if it has lost its original purpose, it can only be used to forge weapons and equipment. How can it be used for cooking!”
With that, he hurried toward the cafeteria.
Sure enough.
Arriving at the inner courtyard kitchen, the bronze cauldron was placed in a prominent location with firewood burning underneath—clearly being used as a pot.
To be honest.
This pot… this cauldron was very large.
Using it to steam rice could easily serve over ten thousand people.
“…”
He Wudi clutched his chest, showing an expression of heartbreak.
That was a bronze cauldron crafted by Senior Seven Profound, yet it was being used as a pot, being used to steam rice—this was simply desecrating his old self!
“Hall Master Liu!”
He Wudi shouted.
Immediately after, the camera spiritually turned, and he was sitting in the cafeteria, picking up his chopsticks to eat a mouthful of the freshly steamed rice. Then he slowly closed his eyes and said with complete satisfaction, “Really fragrant!”
The rice steamed in the bronze cauldron was truly delicious.
Every disciple who came to the cafeteria to eat had several bowls each, and the more they ate, the more energized they became, the more refreshed they felt.
“Bang!”
“Bang!”
Shortly after, everyone’s hair exploded and white smoke emanated from within them.
At that moment, anyone who had eaten the rice steamed in the bronze cauldron felt their entire body suddenly expand, every inch of skin seeming about to split open, and even their souls flew beyond the ninth heaven, merging into an unknown yet sacred environment.
“What’s going on?”
Jun Changxiao hurriedly flew in. Seeing the disciples in the cafeteria sitting in orderly rows with billowing white mist surrounding them, transforming this place into a fairyland shrouded in clouds and mist, he was completely dumbfounded.
—