GDK 664: Take you out
The Cauldron Spirit was autonomous and self-aware. As the primary soul of the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, it knew the demonic weapon inside out and could indeed a.s.sist Han Shuo in many aspects.
Following the Cauldron Spirit’s instructions, Han Shuo sent his avatar of destruction out from his body and it landed inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon in its Demonslayer Edge form. Subsequently, he withdrew the three spirit demons he refined and had them drifting about inside the Cauldron.
“What are you going to do next?” Han Shuo asked the Cauldron Spirit.
“I will transfer negative energy and those weak souls inside your demonic weapon to the spirit demons. Don’t worry, nothing can go wrong,” the Cauldron Spirit replied.
“Is there anything else that you need me to do?” Han Shuo inquired.
“You just have to exit the cauldron and later, when I instruct you to, insert a few drops of your blood into the cauldron to officially be my master. After that procedure is complete, I can stay inside your body and we can communicate anytime using the same communication method!” Cauldron Spirit replied.
“How do I get out of here?” Han Shuo asked when he recalled that he was forcibly sucked into the Cauldron of Myriad Demon by the energy coming from it.
“Just fly out. The energy that was binding you is now all gone.”
Han Shuo stared blankly for a moment before giving it a try. Immediately, he discovered that the energy covering down from above his head had indeed disappeared. With one thought, Han Shuo started flying towards the exit. The demonic yuan that had condensed into liquid form erupted like mini-explosions in every cell in his body. As he had not fully adapted to his recently increased flight speed, he flew far past the opening of the cauldron.
Han Shuo was astonished to find himself high above the formation crux of the colossal Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester. When he peered down into the hole, he saw a big, green copper cauldron around a meter in height. Bizarre scripts glowing with green radiance covered every surface of the cauldron. The center of the cauldron was compacted with dense mist.
With Han Shuo attentively watching, the Cauldron of Myriad Demon gradually rose through the hole and came to a halt as it hovered before Han Shuo. It then gradually shrank to a size which perfectly fit in Han Shuo’s palm.
“Drop your blood into the cauldron and you shall be the new master of the Cauldron of Myriad Demon!” the Cauldron Spirit’s voice physically sounded from the mouth of the cauldron.
Han Shuo immediately did as Cauldron Spirit instructed. He p.r.i.c.ked the tip of his middle finger of his right hand and squirted his blood into the Cauldron of Myriad Demon.
“That’s enough!” shouted the Cauldron Spirit of the Cauldron of Myriad Demon.
The instant that Han Shuo’s blood entered the Cauldron of Myriad Demon, it started to burst with magnificent radiance. The scripts on the surface of the cauldron appeared as though they had come alive as they twisted and squirmed like earthworms. From a distance, those squiggling ancient scriptures formed multiple hideous and terrifying patterns. It appeared extremely sinister and mysterious.
Moments later, an abstruse connection between Han Shuo and the Cauldron Spirit was formed.
Han Shuo gazed attentively at the Cauldron of Myriad Demon with glistening eyes and without moving a muscle for a few seconds before, all of a sudden, he again received a transmission from the Cauldron Spirit within his consciousness, “It’s done. From now onwards, you are officially my new master!”
After transmitting the message, the Cauldron of Myriad Demon glowing with hazy green light slipped from Han Shuo’s palm and flew into his body. When Han Shuo examined his internal organs using his consciousness, he discovered that the Cauldron of Myriad Demon had taken a spot above his underbelly like it was one of his organs.
“Master, everything here will crumble and collapse following my departure. The Exalted Demonlord has planned for this long ago. An earth-shattering transformation is on the horizon. You should leave this place immediately lest that you suffer any injuries when the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester is destructed,” the Cauldron Spirit warned.
Han Shuo was astonished by the Cauldron Spirit’s words. He started to carefully sense for changes in the environment around him and discovered that just as the Cauldron Spirit had said, everything in this place seemed to be slowly transforming. The mountains barricading it were giving off dull, m.u.f.fled sounds at their interiors. When Han Shuo looked at them from a distance, he felt as though the mountains were drunken.
“How much time before this place completely self-destructs? Also, how much time has pa.s.sed since I started absorbing the mystical yin aura in the cauldron?” Han Shuo hastily asked.
“Everything in here will be destroyed in under two hours. There will not be a trail left. After that, no being in this universe will even have a clue that the Exalted Demonlord had deployed anything here in the first place. You may relax about that. You have stayed inside the cauldron for nine days,” Cauldron Spirit replied.
Han Shuo was shocked – shocked at just how little time he had actually spent inside the cauldron!
Han Shuo knew from his experience that making breakthroughs would take ever longer as he advanced through the realms. The process of strengthening his physical body at the juncture of a breakthrough could possibly even take months, and even longer for the entire process to be complete. He originally thought that he had stayed in there for at least several years or even tens of years, not merely nine short days!
When Han Shuo remained silent, the Cauldron Spirit seemed to know what Han Shuo was thinking and it transmitted, “The Exalted Demonlord had personally deployed this place and it’s nothing strange that it would be remarkable. Not to forget the effects that I have. So, don’t be so baffled that duration was shortened to just nine days!”
Han Shuo was immediately enlightened by the Cauldron Spirit’s explanation. It was not unreasonable that the formations deployed by a character as powerful Gu Tian Xie the Exalted Demonlord at the helm of the Cauldron of Myriad Demon could shorten the entire process to just nine days.
“What happened to those who were at the formations? Are they all dead?” Han Shuo asked when a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
“Not yet. But if you want them dead, they will be dead. If you want them to live, then they will live!”
“Care to clarify?”
“Before the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester is completely destroyed, I will still have control over everything in here. When you entered the cauldron, I isolated and trapped every one of them using the formations here. They are still trapped. If you want, I can kill them at any time,” Cauldron Spirit calmly answered. Han Shuo understood it meant that using the demonic formations here that had yet to self-destruct, Cauldron Spirit could slay G.o.ds the level of Kaiser, Eriksson, and Olde, as easily as snapping a finger.
“That’s great. But there are some of them that I want to finish off personally with my own hand, while some could be useful to me in the future and must not be allowed to die!” Han Shuo replied.
“No problem!” Cauldron Spirit answered.
The dozen or so mystical demons that had been circling all along gave Han Shuo a shock by suddenly whoos.h.i.+ng at him when he was about to leave. But before Han Shuo could make any defensive measures, he sensed a slight tremble that came from the Cauldron Spirit in his body. The mouth of the Cauldron of Myriad Demon became exposed on his lower abdomen and sucked clean the dozens of mystical demons.
“Master, I can transform mighty souls directly into demon generals using the cauldron. The Cauldron of Myriad Demons can also store a myriad of demons within it. In fact, my strength and energy originated from the quant.i.ty and strength of the demons stored inside the cauldron.
“Before the Exalted Demonlord battled with that existence in this universe, the cauldron contained an uncountable myriad of demon generals. Among them were approximately a thousand demon generals as powerful as these twelve mystical demons, and over two hundred demon generals even more formidable than these mystical demons. Most the time, the Exalted Demonlord did not need to personally take care of his enemies – I could directly annihilate them merely with the myriad of demons in my body!
“However, during that battle against that existence, I exhausted nearly all those demon generals I had. That is why I have become so weak. Even this dozen of demon generals were gathered when they ventured into this place while the consciousness of the Exalted Demonlord had yet to perish,” the Cauldron Spirit explained.
“So you’re saying that as long as you can capture an expert’s soul as they are dying, it can be refined into a demon general inside your cauldron? The more and the mightier demon generals there are in your cauldron, the more powerful you’ll become?” Han Shuo was astonished.
The Demonslayer Edge also contained a myriad of souls. But comparing them to the demon generals inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon was like comparing ants to mountains – they were in no way of the same cla.s.s. The demon generals formed inside the Cauldron of Myriad Demon such as these mystical demons were powerful enough to easily cause immense pain to G.o.dly existences. Perhaps even that main soul previously formed in the Demonslayer Edge by a.s.sembling numerous souls had no chance against just one of the twelve mystical demons formed in the cauldron.
From those words of the Cauldron Spirit, Han Shuo also learned that these mystical demons were not even the mightiest demon generals. Han Shuo simply dared not imagine just how formidable the Cauldron of Myriad Demon must have been back in its glory days.
“That’s right. The more demon generals there are in the cauldron, the mightier their strengths, the more energy and ability I have. However, there is a criterion for souls that can be turned into a demon generals using the cauldron. They need to possess at least the strength of those souls you used in refining your spirit demons. But even then, they would turn into demon generals of the lowest grade. Souls any weaker than that cannot be turned into demon generals. Those can only be used as feeding material for other demon generals,” the Cauldron Spirit delivered Han Shuo the mind-blowing truth.
Han Shuo smiled bitterly. He did not expect that souls with demiG.o.d strength were the bare minimum requirement for forming a demon general in the cauldron. Those so-called spirit demons he refined using that orc shaman’s soul had seemed rather subpar.
“Erm, those spirit demons I refined can further evolve. Are they considered any good?” Han Shuo asked the Cauldron Spirit rather disappointedly.
“The foundational materials you used in refining those spirit demons were too low-grade. Therefore, there won’t be much room for them to develop. The mystical demons I refined are better than them. When you can finally collect mighty souls, I will refine a spirit demon for you. By then you will see just how much of a difference it makes!” the Cauldron Spirit continued to drop his high-yield bombsh.e.l.l on Han Shuo.
LowG.o.d and midG.o.d souls are merely refined into mystical demons by the cauldron. Then, what would it require to refine a spirit demon, a higher cla.s.s demon general? A highG.o.d soul?
Han Shuo simply did not dare imagine!
When Han Shuo recalled of Cauldron Spirit’s words a moment ago, he reckoned that those two hundred something demon generals mightier than its mystical demons, had to be spirit demons. What did that mean? The cauldron used to hold more than two hundred souls of highG.o.d strength! Han Shuo was simply dumbstruck.
Suddenly, Han Shuo felt that the three spirit demons he went through a lot of trouble to refine were totally insignificant and not even worthy of mentioning compared to those refined by the Cauldron of Myriad Demon. Han Shuo shook his head and sighed.
“You are my master. You can choose how to allocate the demon generals in the cauldron. How about putting those three small spirit demons in the cauldron? In the future, if you gather some weaker souls that can’t be turned into demon generals, they can be turned into demonic aura that the three can absorb. What do you think?” the Cauldron Spirit sought Han Shuo’s opinion.
“Just do as you see fit. Alright, let’s go already. I want to look for Eriksson and put him to death!” Han Shuo hastened. He was no longer that interested in his three spirit demons after listening to the Cauldron Spirit’s words.
The Cauldron Spirit showed Han Shuo where he wanted to go and became silent.
Before the Ninth Realm Mystical Yin Harvester was completely destroyed, everything in this place was under the Cauldron Spirit’s control. This meant that Han Shuo was the de facto master of this facility. Han Shuo suddenly discovered that the coverage area of his consciousness increased by several folds when he expanded his consciousness through the Cauldron Spirit. In just a few moments, he had gained a complete grasp of the entire situation in this place.
He discovered that Donna, Li Wei and the others were still staying at the same spot. However, one thing was different – the method of leaving the area had changed. As none of them understood the miraculousness of the formations, they were all trapped and unable to leave the area.
Eriksson and Kaiser were together in another area. They were trapped inside a disorientating formation filled with dense fog and they had drained themselves constantly traveling in circles.
Olde and Kelly were somewhere much further away. Olde seemed to have given up and just lied down on the ground as though he had fallen asleep. Meanwhile, Kelly was looking all around and anxiously trying to find an exit.
From Cauldron Spirit’s description, Han Shuo learned that Olde possessed the mightiest strength of them. Cauldron Spirit had trapped Olde inside a series of demonic formations that were connected with each other. He had tried everything but he couldn’t leave the combination of demonic formations, and so a few days before Han Shuo woke up, he decided to just quiet down.
“I don’t know what your relations.h.i.+p with them is like so I didn’t kill a single one of them – I simply trapped them all,” Cauldron Spirit transmitted.
“Well done. There are a few of them that are still useful to have, two that I’m going to finish off immediately, and another two – I have not come to a decision about them yet,” Han Shuo transmitted to Cauldron Spirit as he walked towards where Kaiser and Eriksson were located.
Han Shuo could travel across this entire facility unimpededly before he obtained the Cauldron of Myriad Demon. And now, being in control of that treasure, it was a walk in the park to him.
Soon enough, Han Shuo arrived at the exact spot Kaiser and Eriksson were located. While the two were wearily searching for the way out, Han Shuo’s figure abruptly emerged from the hazy mist.
“h.e.l.lo guys! Are you looking for the way out?” Han Shuo put on a bright smile and greeted Eriksson and Kaiser wearing haggard and despaired faces.
Anyone would look exhausted as they were if they were to keep circling in the same area for nine days straight.
Han Shuo’s emergence was like a glimmer of hope. The faces of the two who were battered and exhausted suddenly jolted. They looked at Han Shuo in amazement and simultaneously cried out, “How did you get here? Where did you come from?”
“From outside, of course. Hehe, your faces now look pretty ‘outstanding’!” Han Shuo said in a calm and bright smile.
“Kid, I may not be able to get out, but I’ll at least get to put you out!” Eriksson put on a gloomy face and coldly snickered after being ridiculed by Han Shuo.
“Oh, wonderful! I come here with the same intention of personally taking you out! Let’s see who will actually be wiped out!” Han Shuo chuckled. He intended to try out the power of this Omen realm he had recently acquired on this duo!