Chapter 44

The desk made of small-leaf red sandalwood is extremely elegant and should be accompanied by lush forests and bamboo groves, with a wolf-hair brush dipped in ink.

So when Cheng Luocen saw that dark object, he pondered for a moment whether this pot was not a pot but rather an inkstone shaped like this, and that black wasn’t charcoal but saturated ink.

Then he bent down and scraped the outer edge of the pot, and a small pinch of soot fell off. If Cheng Luocen didn’t know what this was before, during his time at Qianya Peak, the number of times he washed pots, boiled water, and acted as a helper was enough that he was often smudged with soot on his face, hands, and clothes.

So he quickly concluded that this…  your mom, this is really just a pot!

(T/N: Your mom is a Chinese slang that is the equivalent of F*ck )

The old man’s remnant soul was also staring at the pot. He felt it looked familiar but couldn’t recall it immediately.

Relying on intuition, he suggested, “Try knocking on the side of the pot with the brush next to you.”

Although the old man’s remnant soul often talked too much, being sarcastic and boastful, he knew that their fates were intertwined, so he never meant harm. Thus, Cheng Luocen picked up a brush and tapped the edge of the cast-iron pot with the brush handle.

“Buzz—”

The sound wasn’t crisp, rather deep, but the echo seemed to ripple outwards in waves, surprisingly resonant. The sound was so penetrating that everyone outside the room heard it. They were curious about the sound when the winding corridors and numerous snake heads that had been crashing against the barrier and the mansion’s white walls and black tiles suddenly froze for a moment.

The screen in the room happened to turn slightly, and from Shen Ye’s perspective, he could see Cheng Luocen standing on the table, knocking on the pot.

“Damn, no way…”

Shen Ye was shocked: “Knocking the pot actually works?!”

Yi Zui, who was closest to the barrier that Yu Xizhi had erected, experienced the most intense visual impact.

He heard Shen Ye’s words just as everything paused: “What pot-knocking? Who’s knocking on a pot?”

But as the question left his lips, everyone realized what had happened.

It was the strange sound just now.

Lu Zhiheng’s voice trembled slightly, “Junior Brother Cheng, it worked! Knock again!”

Sure enough, the sound echoed again.

If the first strike was a tentative probe, the second was a true hit!

The muffled sound carried a metallic ring, and instantly, the winding corridors retreated dozens of meters, trembling, as if it were frightened!

“Knock again!”

The barrier was under immense strain.

Yu Xizhi spat a mouthful of blood, holding back another in her mouth.

With the pressure alleviated.

Her previously tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and she staggered forward a few steps, the blood she had held in spilling onto the main house’s threshold!

The bright red blood trickled down the threshold, a wisp quietly seeping into the formation that was trapping Shen Ye.

Moments later, the red light flared.

Shen Ye, startled by the sudden red glow, tried instinctively to move his foot, realizing the pressure that had restrained him had vanished without his notice. He quickly stepped out from inside the threshold.

Cheng Luocen, holding the pot and the brush, leaped down from the desk.

Because he was carrying the pot, and since it was a container, the old man’s remnant soul had taken too long to name the ingredients.

So Cheng Luocen, gritting his teeth, bumped into a flower stand and a small desk, using the pot to collect falling treasures.

Just before the red light engulfed the entire mansion, he landed outside the threshold with a pot full of treasures.

The red light intensified.

Seeing the snakes stirring again, Yu Xizhi quickly snatched the brush from Cheng Luocen’s hand and tapped the pot again!

Her hand was stained with blood, which seeped into the brush shaft. The jade brush shaft turned crimson, and the white tip suddenly turned blood red!

As she knocked on the pot, a few drops of blood splattered onto it.

The pot’s bottom was pitch black, and the pot’s body was iron black, but the blood quietly seeped into the pot!

The old man’s remnant soul saw it clearly: “This pot looks peculiar, but it’s indeed a treasure. It even accepted a blood bond.”

In this world, spiritual treasures are categorized into various grades, ranging from innate to acquired and further divided into heaven, earth, human, and harmony grades. Above the heaven grade, there is no distinction between innate and acquired, only between chaotic and creation treasures. Human and harmony-grade treasures cannot form a bond; only heaven, earth, chaotic, and creation treasures can form a blood bond.

In other words, this pot and the brush Cheng Luocen casually picked up were at least acquired earth-grade spiritual treasures!

Once the blood seeped in, the bond was formed.

The master of the spiritual treasure knocked on the pot, and its power was extraordinary.

Thus, that strike resounded like a mighty bell.

The pot’s bottom rang out, and the other treasures inside the pot were jolted by the sound waves, falling back down.

After the strike, a series of crackling sounds formed a symphony of knocks!

Initially, Cheng Luocen’s knocking didn’t seem like much, but this time, everyone covered their ears and foreheads, feeling as if they were being struck heavily!

Huang Li raised his hand to his nose, finding blood flowing down.

Looking around, half of the snakes outside the walls had disappeared, and the once restless nine-curve corridor’s dissipated, retreating and nearly vanishing.

Yu Xizhi also sensed the situation.

“It seems like this pot and brush are yours now.”

Xiao Zhizhi, being a paper talisman person, wasn’t affected by the sound waves.

He looked at the pitch-black cast-iron pot with a complex expression, teasing, “What a big pot.”

Yu Xizhi looked at the pot with a complicated expression for a long time.

Finally, she reached out, picked up the pot, and poured its contents onto the ground.

Perhaps because it had already accepted a blood bond, the pot, though seemingly heavy, was incredibly light in her hand.

—

She held onto the pot handle, lifting the pot and examining it carefully under the light for quite a while. The inside and bottom of the pot were utterly black, completely pitch dark. Inside the pot, there was still a bit of shine, as if it had been seasoned with oil for many years—it was indeed a fine pot that had withstood countless trials by fire.

As she looked at the pot, the others watched her examine the pot while holding it.

The fact that knocking on the pot could drive away the enemy, as unbelievable as it might seem, made everyone present realize that the pot Cheng Luocen had brought out was a spiritual treasure.

…But it’s unknown which master of crafting could be so idle as to forge a pot like this as a spiritual treasure, or if it was a naturally formed innate treasure that just happened to take the shape of a pot.

Yu Xizhi held the pot as if she were holding a gong and gripped the brush as if it were a gong hammer.

Xiao Zhizhi’s voice was filled with schadenfreude, “What else can you do? Just knock on it.”

Almost at the same time, Yu Xizhi sighed, “What else can I do? Just knock on it.”

Compared to other spiritual treasures that have strict usage conditions like requiring a large amount of spiritual energy, having level restrictions, or being limited to a single use in a certain period, this pot… is indeed very user-friendly.

At this point, there is no need to maintain the Kunwu Sword Formation.

Yu Xizhi took the lead, stepping forward and striking down with the gonghammer.

Outside the mansion, the snake demons struggled and twisted, foaming at the mouth.

The weaker ones were even shaken to death.

Those snake demons with a bit of spiritual intelligence showed terror in their eyes, as if recalling a deep-seated fear of being dominated by something.

They turned to flee but were held captive by the sound waves, their bodies trembling and curling up.

Under the lotus pond, a massive body let out a low whimper, like the cry of a snake.

Despite weeping, the giant snake silently swam out of the lotus pond, crawling towards the source of the pot’s sound.

Inside the main house, the red light flared brilliantly but then began to dim. The blood-red formation flickered and jumped as if naturally suppressed by something, unwillingly fading into the dark.

Yu Xizhi was always someone who imagined various scenarios in her mind.

She had envisioned many ways she might bravely venture into a secret realm, some valiant, some embarrassing.

Even when she had seen the many snakes and the snake patterns in the darkness at the bottom of the lotus pond, she had imagined herself fighting a bloody battle.

What’s more, in the original work, there were descriptions of Yu Si’s great battle in this vast desert.

Yu Xizhi had long been mentally prepared, even ready for the possibility of being seriously injured.

…But who could have thought that the situation would develop into her holding a pot and advancing, single-handedly holding back a thousand enemies, and knocking on the pot like knocking on a gong?

It’s ridiculous; this secret realm is truly outrageous.

The girl’s face remained expressionless, the corners of her lips hinting at a smile that was both wry and amused, happy yet sad.

She struck again and again.

“Tong-Tong–”

Behind the girl, six people looked at each other, each holding a sword in one hand and the spiritual treasures Cheng Luocen had just gathered in the other.

They followed the sound of the pot; their expressions dazed and confused, momentarily unsure of who they were, where they were, or what they were doing.

Secret realm… So this is what it looks like?

Xiao Zhizhi, unable to hold it in, burst out laughing beside Yu Xizhi’s ear.

The little paper talisman person clutched his belly, laughing uncontrollably, rocking back and forth without any semblance of dignity.

It was evident that he found the scene before him really funny.

Yu Xizhi, annoyed by the noise, wanted to tell him to shut up, but she also felt like laughing.

So, the girl allowed a faint smile to escape, but before she could voice it, the smile froze on her face.

The lotus pond broke apart, and all the pavilions and towers were overturned. Beneath the mud, with her spiritual consciousness, she detected the presence of a gigantic snake demon.

It lay prostrate on the ground, clearly not expecting to encounter her midway. The two locked eyes for a moment, and the snake suddenly flicked its tongue at her.

The distance was too close, the snake’s tongue too long, and neither of them controlled the distance well.

Seeing the crimson tongue coming at her, Yu Xizhi was startled.

She instinctively raised her hand, using the pot as a shield to block it.

The giant snake’s eyes widened in shock and horror, obviously frightened to the extreme.

However, the force of its tongue was too strong, and before it could react, it had already “splat”—landed on the pot.

Everything fell silent.

The six people following Yu Xizhi were terrified and had already drawn their swords, ready to grit their teeth and fight.

However, in the next moment, the giant snake’s body suddenly shrank, following the tongue that stuck to the pot, shrinking down to the thickness of a finger, trapped inside the black pot!

Yu Xizhi, astonished, lifted the pot and looked inside.

The snake lay stiffly at the bottom of the pot, eyes filled with despair, as if it had already anticipated this outcome the moment it came into contact with the pot.

At the same time, a figure suddenly appeared in Yu Xizhi’s sea of consciousness.

The man, like a shadow, was dressed in dark green. His phoenix eyes were slender, and with the subtle movement of his brows and eyes, he exuded charm.

He could be called a beauty without any exaggeration.

However, this beauty held a pot in one hand and a spatula in the other, looking at Yu Xizhi with a wide smile, “It seems you’ve received my legacy. Little girl, how about some snake soup?”

Yu Xizhi: …?

The man was already flipping the pot, blanching the water, and wielding the spatula skillfully.

“My surname is He, born into the He family of the nantianfu. I am at the complete stage of the Soul Accumulation Realm. My name doesn’t matter, and I had no particular desires before my death. I have no great talents in life, but I am somewhat skilled in making soup. I think it would be a shame if this method of making snake soup were lost to the world. If you wish, I can teach you all the ways to prepare this snake. But if you think that as a cultivator, one should fast and torture themselves, then we have nothing to discuss.”

At the end of his words, the man looked over with a bright smile and said, “Little girl, do you want to learn?”

In her mind, Yu Xizhi recalled her previous statement: “Snake soup is delicious, but whoever wants to make soup with this kind of snake is mentally ill.”

She looked at the pot in her hand and then at the figure in her sea of consciousness, who was evidently the owner of the secret realm, a cultivator surnamed He.

Her expression was complicated.

Could it be that someone actually used these snake demons to make soup?

Is it possible that the snake demons feared the sound of this pot because this True Immortal He captured so many snake demons to make snake soup that they were truly… eaten into defeat and terrorized at the mere sound?

If that is the case, this True Immortal He is quite… something.

After a moment, Yu Xizhi spoke with a complex expression, “It’s not a matter of whether I want to learn or not.”

In her sea of consciousness was a remaining wisp of spiritual consciousness left by True Immortal He.

Although True Immortal He had already perished, the remnant spiritual consciousness would only appear in the sea of consciousness of the person holding the formation’s core, and its reactions and actions had nothing to do with the real person.

At this moment, True Immortal He clearly didn’t expect such a reaction, and he raised his eyebrows, “What do you mean by that?”

Yu Xizhi smiled slightly.

The girl rolled up her sleeves, revealing her slender wrists, and flexed her fingers, “It’s just a coincidence, but I also… know a bit about making soup.”