Chapter 257 - Chapter 257: 257 The Second Divine Cauldron (1/2)
Chapter 257: 257 The Second Divine Cauldron
On this day, Huang Family Town was bustling with excitement. Little Fourth Huang, Huang Laogen’s fourth son who had disappeared for several months, had returned. He had brought back a multitude of material possessions, packed into large and small boxes. It seemed he had lucked out big time and made a fortune.
Huang Laogen’s household was a carnival of activity. Anyone with a shred of relation or familiarity flocked to his residence to congratulate him.
The center of attention, Little Fourth Huang, also known as Huang Yongkang, the youthful hero, sneaked off to the outskirts of the town, visiting an old dilapidated temple.
Just a few months prior, it was here that he encountered his karmic opportunity and embarked on the path of cultivation.
If it were not for that ethereal couple, he would have been just like any common child, stuck in the inconsequential town of Huang Family, oblivious to the expansive universe and the mystical immortal methods.
“I remember, it was here,” he muttered.
Huang Yongkang walked up to a strangely bulging patch of ground and unhitched a black cloth bag from his waist. With a flick of the bag, a white tiger, covered in white fur, sprang from it.
He ordered, “Dig up the thing beneath.”
The regal beast gave him a wronged look. It was the king of beasts, reduced to a digger.
Yet, intimidated by the boy’s authority, it diligently started digging. Its sharp claws sliced through dirt as easily as through tofu. It wasn’t long before it hit a hard object, causing sparks to fly.
“My goodness, it seems this dilapidated temple is not as plain as it looks!” Huang Yongkang said, somewhat surprised.
The tiger demon’s claws could penetrate steel with ease, yet they were unable to scrape the object beneath, making it clearly extraordinary.
It wasn’t long before the buried entity was revealed – a timeworn stone tablet.
On it were written three complex characters.
“I did remember correctly. What’s written here is indeed the ancient script the old man taught me,” Huang Yongkang exclaimed with joy.
“The old man treats that map of his like a treasure. It even marked the location of the Huang Family Town, with these three characters written next to it.”
He possessed the knack of remembering things at a glance. As a child, he had accidentally ventured to this old temple and seen the characters on the tablet.
At the time, the tablet hadn’t been entirely buried in the ground yet. He remembered being curious about the writing and had copied it down, asking the town’s most knowledgeable teacher about it. However, even the teacher hadn’t recognized the characters.
But some time ago, he caught a glimpse of those three characters on the esteemed map that the old man always carried. He had been watchful ever since.
That map, that old man possessed, was anything but ordinary. Every time he flipped it, the location of some treasure was quickly discovered.
It was precisely because of this that he had been able to seize numerous opportunities and elevate his cultivation level over the span of just several months.
During this trip back home, Huang Yongkang was not only eager to return to his roots but also to verify his recent speculations.
“As I thought, this is another treasure site,” he affirmed.
His eyes lit up as he pulled out a copper mirror from nowhere and poured his True Essence into it.
As soon as the mirror lit up, it revealed a hidden prohibition on the stone tablet.
Excited, he put the mirror away, took several steps back, summoned a flying sword, and commanded, “Break!”
The flying sword hit the prohibition on the spot.
Accompanied by a cracking noise, a burst of azure light shot into the sky. The stone tablet shattered inch by inch, revealing a dimensional passage.
With a brief glance into the passage, Huang Yongkang saw a massive copper tripod. Within the tripod, a stunningly resplendent flower was blooming.
The flower seemed to tremble slightly before turning to reveal an incredibly beautiful woman’s face.
The face opened its eyes, which put him in such a fright that he felt his spirit might leave him.
“Nascent Soul!” he shouted, swiveling to escape, only to discover he was paralyzed. His True Essence felt like it had turned into ice. Even his Magic Treasure, which was connected to him by blood, didn’t obey his instructions.
He was done for.
Huang Yongkang’s heart was chilled.
Having just begun the Foundation Establishment Stage of cultivation, he stood no chance against a being of the Nascent Soul stage. There was no way for him to have imagined a Nascent Soul stage monster lurking inside.
He had truly brought disaster upon himself.
All this time, he had ridden on a wave of continuous success, embarking on adventures with the old man, acquiring various chances along the way. Within just a few months, he had reached the Foundation Establishment Stage.
He had achieved a realm that countless independent cultivators would never attain in their lifetimes.
He had begun to let success go to his head, and had decided to venture out on his own, without the old man.
Now, he had finally met his match.
The flower extending from the other side of the dimensional passage unfurled a leaf, stretching it toward the young boy’s body and wrapping him tightly.
Then it started to drag him inside.
Help me!
Huang Yongkang was in such a panic that he felt like his cries for help were falling on deaf ears. He regretted his actions – if he had known, he would never have left the old man behind due to greed…
Just as he was about to be pulled into the dimensional entrance, a knife’s energy descended from the sky, severing the leaf wrapped around him.
A savior descended from the sky!
Huang Yongkang regained his ability to move and crawled away from the dimensional passage.
“It’s you again,” a somewhat familiar voice echoed from the skies.
He looked up and saw two familiar figures in the sky – the ethereal young man and woman, who appeared to have descended from the heavens.
He never thought that they would save him again.
What shocked him even more was the seismic change in their cultivation levels. When he last met with them in No Return Mountain, they were just at the Foundation Establishment Stage.
Now, they had soared to the Golden Core Stage.
The old man had always said that his karmic fortunes were deep, and his cultivation speed was a rare phenomenon throughout the ages.
But compared to the man before him now, he didn’t amount to much.
Gu Yang did not expect to see that yellow-faced boy again as soon as he entered Shuiyue Dongtian.
In just a few months, the boy had reached a cultivation level equivalent to that of the Golden Body realm.