Section Twenty-Nine: Master Wuyun trusts you, but I do not.

The group broke out in a cold sweat. Ignoring Wuyun’s warnings, Long Yi kept his dragon core circulating, preferring to expend his celestial energy rather than die without knowing why. The standoff did not last long; Wuyun led the cautious Long Yi forward, and the bull-faced underworld clansman made no move to stop them. With a cold snort, he allowed them to pass.

Suddenly, the space opened up before them. Leaving behind the soul realm formed by the Mokuang Soulwater, they found themselves within a certain inner chamber of the Magnetar Star. In this vast expanse, a crescent-shaped spatial rift loomed ahead, emanating an endless, overwhelming suction—all from this fissure. However, wedged tightly within the gaping rift was a colossal black cauldron.

It was like a jaw trying to swallow a bone, yet unable to manage it, the bone stubbornly stuck fast. Yet, contrary to appearances, it was the bone that strove desperately to extricate itself from the maw—it had come to the crucial final moment.

“A heavy weapon degraded from a celestial artifact!” Liu Ruoyan, knowledgeable as the leader of her sect, saw through it at a glance. Long Yi, however, was visibly tense.

“Don’t worry—it’s not the celestial artifact that once hunted you. Even if it were, to emerge from within, it would have to survive a tribulation and be reduced to a Dao artifact first,” Wuyun said, carefully examining the cauldron’s worn patterns. If the cauldron struggled a bit harder and managed to enter the Qianluo Space, the final strain of the rift would shatter it.

After observing for a while, Wuyun pointed to several small holes around the cauldron’s lid. “This Mokuang Soulwater comes from this cauldron. If you wish to subdue it, Long Yi, it will depend on your celestial might.”

Long Yi was both delighted and surprised. A mere heavy weapon was low-grade in the Celestial Realm, but here, it was the mightiest existence—stronger even than what the Qianluo Space could contain. If it entered, it would be sanded down and banished.

Before he could ask how to subdue it, the bull-faced underworld clansman materialized again, coldly addressing Wuyun: “The cat demon you mentioned is about to break in.”

“Please hold it off for a moment!” Wuyun pleaded. With a snort, the bull-faced figure vanished.

Old Bear Three’s eyes lit up. Knowing the power of this foreigner, he asked, “Since he can assist us, why not join forces with the Celestial King Long Yi, use the heavy weapon, and eliminate the tiger-faced immortal?”

Everyone nodded as if this were only natural, looking to Wuyun as their senior for guidance.

Wuyun could only smile wryly and speak plainly: “Just now I put a curse on thousands of my own souls; after he devoured them, the curse bound him not to harm me. It’s not that the curse lacks power, but that he’s too strong. Imagine—someone who can kill peak Godbreakers in an instant, yet stands at the mouth of his own heavy weapon—how could he be restrained by me? Hurry, he has already digested more than a thousand cursed souls. Once he breaks free, we’d be better off fleeing with the tiger-faced immortal!”

Fear gripped the group, their awe of the bull-faced underworld clansman only deepening. But after Wuyun’s explanation, he added, “Only by mastering soul cultivation can you avoid being felled in a single strike and escape with ease.”

Their spirits eased, all eyes turned to Celestial King Long Yi. He drew a sharp breath as Wuyun pointed ahead, thinking the correct entrance was one of the four in the lid. With a flash, he darted inside like a streak of light.

Wuyun then pointed at Battle King, who stood beside Long Yi, and mused, “After it’s subdued, this cauldron is meant for you to use...”

He hadn’t finished the sentence before Long Yi had already slipped in and vanished.

“Senior!” Battle King’s face flushed dark red, nearly purple. “You must make such things clear to Celestial King Long Yi, or else, if he claims this treasure, how could he possibly give it to me?”

Seeing Battle King’s eagerness, Wuyun was baffled as well. “I haven’t even explained how to subdue it! That slippery fellow is more impatient than I am. Hmph, wants it all for himself!”

Battle King, embarrassed, cautiously circled the cauldron, eager to examine what might be his future weapon. But before he could approach, a tribulation bolt shot out from the incomplete spatial rift and struck him. Instantly, his entire form blackened, and Old Bear Three dragged him back.

“Why did this happen?” Little Insect dared not come closer—his Buddha-light was spent, and he was still recovering. That tribulation bolt would have seriously injured him in a single stroke.

Wuyun explained, “Half of the cauldron is wedged in the spatial rift, the other half in the Qianluo Space. Because of this unique situation, it’s reached a balance point. As long as the cauldron doesn’t fully enter the Qianluo Space, the destructive force of the rift won’t be unleashed.”

As for whether Long Yi would be harmed, even Wuyun could not be sure. In this team, that slippery dragon always overestimated himself.

Wuyun cast a minor spell; a cloud appeared above his head. The others were delighted to see that the two clouds linked, allowing them to observe Long Yi’s every move. He radiated dazzling light as he endured a barrage of magical attacks.

There was fire—stronger than even the legendary Threefold Truefire, it was Sixfold Truefire. Each flavor of truefire was a power of heaven; Ninefold Truefire could incinerate immortals. This was heavy weapon-level truefire, each burst peeling away a layer of Long Yi’s fur and scales, even when he reverted to his true draconic form.

Long Yi could have resisted with his misfortune-evading arts, but with the cauldron pressing down like Mount Tai, he was forced to dodge, flickering and weaving, yet the little cauldron would come crashing from every direction—above, below, left, right, all around. Inevitably, one would pin him ruthlessly to the cauldron’s base.

The moment he was struck, the cup-sized cauldron instantly grew to the size of a mountain, and the mighty dragon shrank to a mere eel. Were it not for the glow of his desperate resistance, one might think he’d been ground to dust.

As Long Yi struggled, the once-solid base of the cauldron suddenly turned into a sea of fire, and Sixfold Truefire erupted from nowhere. This was like pouring oil on the flames—his strength was quickly spent.

Even if he managed to break through with his dragon core this time, what about the next, or the hundredth time?

“Senior Wuyun, save me!” Long Yi finally came to his senses and called out for help to the cloud above, which remained untouched and unassailed. With a gesture from Wuyun, Battle King nervously appeared within the cloud’s vision and timidly spoke.

“Celestial King Long Yi, Senior says you’re to retrieve this cauldron for my use—will you agree?”

“I agree, I agree!” Long Yi nodded so fervently his head resembled a pecking chicken. Under such roasting and suppression, he would have to burn his life force and shatter his dragon core. Yet Battle King was a seasoned hand, a veteran peak Godbreaker, among the strongest in his realm—how could he be so easily fooled?

Battle King persisted, “Senior Wuyun trusts you, but I do not. If you claim the treasure and refuse to hand it over, what then...?”

Before he finished, a simple oath was made, one that ignored the cauldron entirely and settled directly upon Battle King. This was a true soul oath, protected by the Heavenly Dao and binding the very soul. Should he break it, his Dao heart and immortal spirit would suffer immense torment and backlash.

With the oath in place, Wuyun began teaching Long Yi the method of control. As he recited the incantation, Long Yi’s dragon head swelled and reddened with anger, his fury burning hotter than the Sixfold Truefire.

Once Wuyun finished imparting the spell and Long Yi recited it, the mountain-like weight vanished from his body, and the burning below turned to icy coolness—no trace of heat remained.

Only his charred scales and completely singed whiskers testified to the peril he’d just faced.

“Just a single incantation to subdue this heavy weapon?” Long Yi was utterly stunned. Who was this Wuyun, really? This cauldron, crafted at the emperor level of celestial artifacts, was subdued by a mere spell—who could believe such a thing?

Even the bull-faced underworld clansman, tricked as he was, sensed the instant the heavy weapon was tamed and appeared swiftly behind Wuyun. He stared in disbelief at the subdued, battered celestial artifact—the very home he’d inhabited, his means of returning to the Celestial Realm—utterly dumbfounded.

After a long pause, rage twisted into laughter, and he was just about to attack Wuyun when a fissure tore open in the space, and a massive head thrust through. In a flash, the tiger-faced immortal appeared.