Chapter 1854 — The Wonder of the Seventh-Ranked One
The Herdsman of the Wasteland · Page 1 of 5
Once out of the Jade Capital City, the power of Zuting's Primordial Cauldron burst forth in an instant. Refined by Shen Mu through three and a half billion years of ritual tempering, its might could have shattered even the walls of the Jade Capital City; only because that city is wrought of the third immutable substance had it held the Cauldron one measure in check. Now, with the Jade Capital City no longer pressing down upon it, the Cauldron's power could be said to destroy heaven and ruin earth; even if every Hall Master and accomplished Daoist of Miluo Palace joined hands, they would find it hard to contend with it.
Yet just as the Cauldron's might was about to erupt, several Hall Masters rose from within the Jade Capital City bearing an ancient well aloft, and descended from above into the Cauldron. That well was none other than the Heaven-Piercing Well of Young Master Tai Shang, a treasure Tai Shang had used to rescue accomplished Daoists of bygone cosmic epochs.
Those Hall Masters drove the Heaven-Piercing Well down with all their force, plunging it into Zuting's Primordial Cauldron, and at once the great Cauldron was pierced through, its power bleeding away. Lan Yutian, Xu Shenghua, and the other beings who cultivated the Zuting dao-realm system spared no effort, rousing the might of Zuting's great holy lands and hurling it at the Heaven-Piercing Well in an attempt to destroy it; yet the well was a strange thing indeed, linked within to the Great Calamity of Destruction, devouring every shred of Zuting's Primordial Cauldron's power, so that not the least force could take effect upon it.
"I will break this great well!
" Sword in hand, Kaihuang Shen Ye charged the ancient well, but several Hall Masters stood guard beside it, and Su Muzhe, Shen Wu, and a dozen or more Jingping accomplished Daoists, fearing Kaihuang Shen Ye could not prevail alone, hurried after him to lend their strength. Suddenly a strange treasure flew out of the Jade Capital City, trailing purple clouds for ten thousand li, likewise guarded by several Hall Masters, and was offered up into the sky above the Cauldron; seeing this, Xing An hastily led a dozen or more accomplished Daoists to intercept it.
The strange treasure was Flying Smoke, born of the cultivation Second Young Master Wuji had possessed when she attained the Dao; though it was called flying smoke, it was in truth a thirty-sixth-heaven dao realm formed of primordial qi, and its power was beyond measure. Second Young Master Wuji had been unable to brand the Guixu Great Dao upon the ultimate void, and so had cast off her own dao-realm cultivation, turning instead to the path of attaining the Dao through Guixu. Her dao-realm cultivation was poison to her, and so she had to sever it; yet she was, after all, a Young Master of Miluo Palace, and the cultivation she cut away was no small matter. Then more strange treasures flew out of the Jade Capital City: Hall Masters of Miluo Palace bore forth the treasures of Young Masters Zixiao, Lingxiao, Zhanji, and Wuzong, to press down the Cauldron together.
Had it been the Heaven-Piercing Well alone, it could not have subdued the Cauldron's might; but with the strange treasures of the other Young Masters added, the Cauldron's power was forever trapped circling within itself, unable to threaten the rest of Miluo Palace.
Six great strange treasures pinned the Cauldron's might down beyond hope of release. The Jingping accomplished Daoists had always been far fewer in number than those of Miluo Palace; deprived of the Primordial Cauldron and the Six Paths Heavenly Wheel, victory would be as hard to win as to climb into heaven.