Chapter 2965 - I’ll Just Have to Ask the Heart Devil for Help

Su Yi began his second attempt. The clear power of Profound Ruin entered the Cauldron of Fate like a sword’s edge. Nothing stood in its way.

It was only when it reached the golden, ring-like seal that something else unexpected happened.

The ring erupted with dazzling light, blocking the invasion of Profound Ruin in a mad frenzy.

At the same time, that strange vision of a desolate, ancient battlefield came back into view, complete with the dried-up ocean, dancing rain of golden flames, and countless corpses piled high in the ground. It was a bleak vision of death.

Unlike last time, Su Yi immediately focused his divine sense, appearing above the dried-up ocean as a soul avatar.

The battlefield trembled as if sensing an outsider, and the countless golden flames whooshed forth, like countless streaks of sword qi. All of them hurtled toward Su Yi.

Su Yi’s soul avatar was instantly riddled with holes, run through in countless places. It caught ablaze with an audible bang!

But then, a cold snort rang out, and Su Yi condensed yet another avatar. This one was even grander, and it stood above heaven and earth, bathed in endless sword light.

The avatar swung his sleeves, and... kaboom!

Countless streaks of sword qi whooshed forth, enveloping and clashing with the golden flames. Sword qi clanged, and sword hums swept forth. All were manifestations of Su Yi’s soul imbued with the power of Profound Ruin. In the outside world, this would have been enough to defeat most Heavenly Monarchs with ease.

But those golden flames were incomparably strange. They looked ethereal, but they were full of burning power and capable of incinerating both heaven and earth. Moreover, there was no end to them. Together, they managed to block Su Yi’s offensive!

Not even Profound Ruin is enough? Su Yi was a bit surprised. He was now certain that if he destroyed this ancient battlefield, he’d break the seal on the Cauldron of Fate, too.

It was just that taking this step was harder than he anticipated.

Let’s try reincarnation, then! Su Yi’s soul avatar’s aura transformed as he switched tactics. Countless streaks of sword qi surged forth, blanketing heaven and earth and condensing into a reincarnation sword domain that enveloped the entire battlefield.

The dense golden flames withered in a flash, then silently dissipated.

But before Su Yi could celebrate, new golden flames took their place, then pelted the world of reincarnation like a raging storm.

Golden flames repeatedly withered throughout this onslaught, only for new ones to take their place. They attacked relentlessly, and within a few blinks of an eye, the sword domain couldn’t take it anymore. It exploded into countless pieces.

Su Yi furrowed his brow. These golden flames are indeed far too sinister and strange. Reincarnation and Profound Ruin can break them, but they just recondense without end. They seem indestructible.

Su Yi pondered briefly, then tried again. He went on to test the Nine Luminaries Edict, the Divine Hunt Edict, the Ashes of Spirit Edict, and various other powers of the Grand Dao.

Some were more effective than others, but the differences were subtle. For the most part, the outcome was the same as when he used Reincarnation and Profound Ruin. None of his powers could truly destroy the golden flames.

Su Yi couldn’t help but find this astonishing. Just what kind of power is manifesting these flames? Why are they so downright unreasonable? Or is it just that my cultivation base is insufficient and that my mastery of the Grand Dao is too low-level to truly destroy them?

As he pondered, the ancient battlefield underwent yet another shocking shift. The countless skeletons came back to life!

All of them shot into the air, charging at Su Yi’s soul avatar. They were like an enormous, grand army of skeletons marching into battle, sweeping over heaven and earth!

There was nowhere for Su Yi to run. All he could do was fight back with all his might.

Kaboom!

Sword qi shot forth, and divine flames swept outward. Numerous skeletons fell like rain, destroyed on the spot. Their bones clattered to the ground.

But Su Yi noticed that not long after they hit the ground, they pieced themselves back together and came back to “life!”

They seemed endless and indestructible in the same way as those golden divine flames.

Something suddenly occurred to Su Yi. Don’t tell me that it’s not the flames and skeletons that are indestructible so much as the Laws covering the battlefield?

He’d only just thought this when... Boom!

A Buddhist monk, or rather, the scattered bones that remained of him, roared in fury, waving his hands through the air as if beating a drum and stirring up seemingly endless blood-red Buddhist light.

This attack shook heaven and earth with ferocious, inestimable power.

Su Yi gasped, his eyes full of disbelief.

When he faced this attack, he sensed the characteristic majesty of a Heavenly Sovereign! He’d sensed similar auras before emanating from Heavenly Sovereigns Lu Hongpao and Ku Xuan, and from River Ancestors Lu Shu and Shen Xiao, as well as the imprint of Heavenly Sovereign Wanjiang on the thirteenth floor of the Sword-Testing Tower.

Su Yi dared not hesitate. He circulated the full extent of his soul power and fought back with all his might.

Boom!

Heaven and earth shook, rumbling like thunder as Su Yi’s soul avatar split into pieces. He felt a rending pain in his soul as the stars spun around him and he vanished from the ancient battlefield.

His hands trembled as they gripped the Cauldron of Fate, but the Sword of the Nine Hells still pinned it firmly in place.

His eyes opened. His face was pallid, and blood gushed from the corners of his lips. A hint of lingering terror appeared on his brow.

This was just the seal on the inside of the Cauldron of Fate, yet it contained such a strange, ancient battlefield.

Who could have imagined that a golden sacred relic strewn on such a battlefield would be the remnants of a suspected Buddhist Heavenly Sovereign?

The very thought of it was horrifying!

When Su Yi saw the corpses strewn across the ground, he couldn’t help but suspect that there were other former Heavenly Sovereigns among them!

Most unbelievable of all, when his soul avatar shattered, he clearly heard someone sigh with bitterness and disappointment. The void was soft and low. It seemed close, yet endlessly far away. There was no way he’d simply been hearing things.

Su Yi took a deep breath, then looked at the Cauldron of Fate once more.

The Malevolent Sword Venerate had retrieved this treasure from the depths of the Sea of Fate, but he’d never managed to refine it. Did that mean that the Malevolent Sword Venerate had experienced a similar vision?

What were this jade cauldron’s origins? What secrets did it contain?

Su Yi fell silent, then rubbed his forehead. He’d expended far too much of his soul power, and on top of that, he’d taken a heavy blow, leaving him injured. He couldn’t possibly try to uncover the cauldron’s secrets anytime soon.

Su Yi pondered briefly, then decided to ask his first incarnation’s heart devil.

“The Cauldron of Fate? An ancient, indestructible battlefield? The corpses of Heavenly Sovereigns? Uh... How strange! I’ve never heard of any such treasure!” said the heart devil after hearing Su Yi’s explanation.

He was indeed interested, to the point that he actually emerged from the rusted sheath and manifested an illusory figure.

He couldn’t help but take the opportunity to complain. “Tch. You used the Sword of the Nine Hells to suppress a cauldron? That’s like taking an emperor’s personal weapon to slaughter a chicken! You just desecrated a divine treasure!”

But before long, the Cauldron of Fate seized his attention.

After examining it briefly, he seemed to sense something. He slapped his thigh and laughed. “I remember! The markings on that thing are called Primordial Inscriptions. They’d been lost long before I was born, relegated to dusty old forgotten papers.”

The heart devil continued, the words flowing out of him. “Why did they vanish? Simple! They’re far too strange and inscrutable, to the point that only those naturally formed beings born in the early days of the Primordial Era can write and read them. Others cannot hope to grasp their mysteries and true meaning.

“When the last of those naturally formed creatures died, their Primordial Inscriptions naturally died with them. It would have been stranger if they hadn’t faded into obscurity.”

Su Yi wasn’t interested in the Primordial Inscriptions, nor was he interested in the beings that had arisen in the early days of the Primordial Era.

All he asked was, “What do the Primordial Inscriptions of the Cauldron of Fate say?”

The heart devil responded, “Primordial Inscriptions are about spirit, not shape. Reading them requires sensing the aura of the Grand Dao imbued within each marking.

“Unfortunately, while the shape of the cauldron’s markings remains, the spirit has been lost. Without their power of the Grand Dao, they’re impossible to read.”

The heart devil stroked his jaw. “You said that there was a dried-up well on that ancient battlefield. Did you explore it?”

Su Yi shook his head.

“Seems to me that there’s got to be some sort of problem with that well,” said the heart devil. “You said there was a skeletal hand reaching out of it, right? That’s obviously pretty sinister. Seems to me that I’d best have a look myself.”

The heart devil suddenly looked at Su Yi, his gaze inscrutable. “Right, you’d best be ready to usher me back at any moment. If something happens to me...”

Su Yi said solemnly, “Rest assured.”

His first incarnation’s heart devil burst into laughter. “You really thought something might happen to me, huh? I’m just teasing you!”

With that, the heart devil blurred into a beam of light and vanished into the Cauldron of Fate.

Su Yi didn’t know what to say. My first incarnation’s heart devil is getting increasingly worse behaved!

Boom!

The Cauldron of Fate shook violently.

Su Yi was instantly solemn. He cast aside his scattered thoughts and fixed his gaze on the cauldron.

The heart devil made this sound simple, but what if something really happened? He’d really be in for a spectacle then!