C441 He Advanced Fiercely!
The unexpected activity of the Crucible of Evil had caught the attention of everyone around, including the youth from the Devil Palace inside the cauldron. With a wry smile and a shake of his head, he sighed, ready to make his exit. His sole purpose in hiding there was to evade the detection and assault of the Tears of the Azurefiend; the Crucible of Evil itself held no interest for him.
Outside the cauldron, Hou Tianzhao, Qi Nandou, Lin Yue, Chi Yin, and other ambitious figures were driven by greed, eager to approach the cauldron and seize the chance to step inside. They were convinced that Yu Yuan's disregard for the threat of the Tears of the Azurefiend in his search for something extraordinary was a sign of something remarkable. Were it not for the Abyssal Leviathan's vigilant presence, these daring individuals would have already caused a commotion.
"Who's inside?" Lu Baichan called out from within the Nebula Gem, directing her voice toward the Fallen Star Eyes. Her gaze settled on Luo Yiyi of the Cloudwater Sect and the sect's other members. The close relationship between the Cloudwater Sect and the Ebon Star Sect was no secret, with many from Cloudwater eager to curry favor with the Ebon Star, hoping to join its cultivators on their journeys. Given the Ebon Star Sect's esteemed status, powerful cultivators, and abundance of artifacts and mystiques, accompanying them was seen as advantageous.
This was precisely why Lu Baichan confidently demanded Luo Yiyi to respond. She had skillfully utilized the Nebula Gem's capabilities, ensuring her voice carried through the water, audible to Luo Yiyi and everyone atop the Fallen Star Eyes.
Above the Fallen Star Eyes, the others disregarded her calls. But Luo Yiyi, intimidated, offered a timid glance and mouthed a name.
"Yu Yuan!"
Lu Baichan, who had already suspected as much, found her suspicions confirmed by Luo Yiyi's silent utterance, leaving her with an odd look on her face.
"Luo Yiyi!"
Liu Ying, unable to hold back her frustration any longer, decisively gestured with a wave of her hand, declaring, "If our paths do not align, we have no reason to conspire!" With that, she enveloped Luo Yiyi and the Cloudwater Sect members in a swirl of cosmic energy, forcibly ejecting them from the area.
Luo Yiyi was about to speak when she realized that seawater was rushing in.
She shot Liu Ying a fierce glare, swallowing the words "Soul Essence Pill" she had intended to reclaim, and led the remaining members of the Cloudwater Sect toward the Nebula Gem.
Lu Baichan released a radiant light, welcoming Luo Yiyi and the others inside.
"Liu Ying has gone too far!"
As soon as they were inside, Luo Yiyi began to vehemently complain, "It's bad enough that she stole my Soul Essence Pill, but to then expel me just for speaking a couple of words to her? Senior Sister Lu, you must see that justice is served!"
"Just stay inside the gem and keep quiet," Lu Baichan retorted with a snort.
"Boom! Boom! Boom!"
The seabed cavern shook violently, and rocks began to crumble.
The boulders at the mouth of the cave broke away, finally revealing the full visage of the Crucible of Evil.
"A cauldron?"
"The mouth of the cauldron is facing us? Were those layers of rock merely a disguise? What kind of cauldron is so massive?"
"Look at all those glyphs! They seem to be imprinted with the intricacies of the soul, resembling phantom evils—ferocious and savage. They're certainly not benevolent."
The group buzzed with conversation.
Kong Banbi from the Sword Sect ended the murmurs with a definitive statement, "That is the Crucible of Evil!"
"The Crucible of Evil!"
"What? The Crucible of Evil is located on an island in the Embers Sea and merged with the rocks beneath it?"
"Between the Blood Altar and now the Crucible of Evil, how many secrets are the Devil Palace and Shadow's Keep hiding in the Embers Sea?"
"Wasn't the Crucible of Evil supposed to have been destroyed with the fall of the Terror Claws?"
Suddenly, a figure burst forth from the mouth of the cauldron.
It was the young man from the Devil Palace!
As he emerged, he dodged the Abyssal Leviathan with a look of dread, bowing repeatedly and pleading, "Don't kill me. It wasn't me, nor was it the Devil Palace that restrained you. If you're looking for someone to blame, blame the evilkind. No, the ancient evilkind."
The Abyssal Leviathan's keen eyes regarded him with cold disdain.
He let out a quiet sigh of relief, patted his chest, and as he turned his head, he caught sight of Hou Tianzhao and Qi Nandou approaching with the Ethereal Vial. "What brings you two here?"
Hou Tianzhao and Qi Nandou were just as surprised to see the unexpected figure. "Is that you?"
"Ah!" Fei Yi of the Devil Palace, upon seeing the youth emerge from the cauldron, let out a sudden, piercing scream. His expression was a bizarre mix of shock and disbelief. "How, how, how is he here?"
Lin Yue and Chi Yin were equally astonished at the young man's appearance.
"Who is he?" Liu Ying exclaimed, taken aback.
The Devil Palace's youth appeared very young, seemingly in the late period of Veil Breaking, yet not quite having reached Subtlety. His talent was certainly commendable, though not earth-shattering. Nevertheless, his arrival had startled Qi Nandou, Hou Tianzhao, Lin Yue, Chi Yin, and the other rising stars from the northern Land of Quiescence.
Yet Liu Ying, Kong Banbi, Du Huang, and other cultivators from the Land of Quiescence did not recognize him.
"Fei Yi, who is he?" Yan Lu's curiosity was piqued as he observed the youth, who was awkwardly bowing and scraping to the odd fish. "He appears to practice the dark arts, judging by the spiritual energy and vitality emanating from him."
"Fei Yi, is he one of ours?" Wu Pei asked, clearly surprised. Despite his time in the Land of Quiescence and training at the Devil Palace, he had never come across this young man.
"Yes," Fei Yi confirmed with a nod, acknowledging the youth's affiliation with the Devil Palace but offering no further details.
...
Inside the Crucible of Evil:
A thunderous roar echoed as stones tumbled and crashed to the ground. Wisps of psionic power, shimmering with multicolored light, streamed from the fissures in the rock walls and the remains scattered across the floor, converging towards Yu Yuan in a howling rush.
A swollen vein stretched from Yu Yuan's lower elixir field, through the Golden Sanctum acupoint, directly to the middle elixir field's Profound Gate. Within that vein, spiritual energy surged like arc light, voraciously drawing in the vitality released from his bones and internal organs.
There were even finer tendons that connected to his limbs and backbones, all converging towards the Profound Gate at the middle elixir field.
Within these tendons flowed the psionic power drawn by the Evil Body Refining technique, originating from the depths of the cauldron.
Hiss! Hiss! Hiss!
Yu Yuan's chest, where the middle elixir field and the Profound Gate acupoint were located, erupted in a spray of seven-colored flames.
He perceived the Profound Gate acupoint as a fortress, thick and unyielding, withstanding the relentless assault of spiritual energy and the psionic power's impact, causing him such agony that he couldn't help but let out a piercing howl.
"Ah!"
Inside the cauldron, oblivious to the departure of the Devil Palace youth, he threw back his head and roared.
Flames burst ceaselessly from his chest.
In his Golden Sanctum, the nine "suns" hung aloft!
The refined sunfire transformed into radiant arcs, aiding him in purifying the spiritual energy and tempering it into a refined force, which then surged along the tendon leading directly to the Profound Gate acupoint.
In the distance, Yu Yuan could almost hear the spiritual energy and vitality coursing through his body's tendons and blood vessels, thundering like a stampede of horses or a mountain torrent unleashed!
Boom!
With the explosive power of his robust muscles, the fiery sword light within his arm bones flared like crimson lightning.
"Awooo!"
The cauldron shuddered violently once more, sending massive stones hurtling through the air.
Yu Yuan felt a sudden, sharp pain even in his mud pellet acupoints.
His consciousness blurred momentarily, as if the three souls of heaven, earth, and man were twisted into a braid, inflicting unbearable agony.
Swoosh!
A rainbow streak flashed across his chest.
In an instant, his muddled spiritual wisdom regained its clarity!
All sensations of stabbing pain and the feeling of his soul being ripped apart vanished without a trace.
The disordered and surging vitality that had been rampaging found its outlet, converging towards a single point in his chest.
This was the crucible for the refinement, storage, and rebirth of vitality!
This was the vitality Profound Gate of the middle elixir field!
Simultaneously, more psionic power streamed from every direction within the cauldron, flooding into Yu Yuan's corporeal body with even greater speed.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
A torrent of chaotic psionic power surged around him, creating a magnetic field in his vicinity.
"Evil Body Refining Technique! It directly refines the body after breaking through the Profound Gate!"
Yu Yuan trembled once more, sensing the strange power flooding towards him. He quickly understood that a force was impatient to refine his corporeal body as he entered the Veil Breaking Stage.
"It isn't the dark arts at work here; it must be the Crucible of Evil!"
