390: Chapter 390 Deep Within the Tomb of Cauldrons

After finishing his sentence, Su Mingyuan unleashed all of his spiritual energy, took a stride, and dashed toward the depths of the Cauldron Tomb.

Tao Zhe followed half a step behind his left, and Han Li brought up the rear. The three of them moved in a line, weaving through the dense array of Pill Cauldrons and stone tablets.

They hadn't brought anyone else.

After all, the other Fifth-rank Martial Artists were all outside holding off the bear-bone skeletons; not a single one could be spared.

They brought Han Li because she had no combat ability, and leaving her outside would only be a hindrance.

They brought Tao Zhe because only he could recognize the characters on the cauldrons.

Su Mingyuan walked quickly, the sounds of battle behind them growing increasingly distant.

The crisp crackle of lightning arcs turned into muffled, low thuds, and the sound of clashing bones blurred into a chaotic mess, making it impossible to tell who was hitting whom.

They had already walked through the outer perimeter of the Cauldron Tomb; when they first entered, they only felt it was large, but they hadn't thought deeply about just how big it truly was.

Now that they were heading deeper, they finally realized.

This place was much larger than Su Mingyuan had imagined.

The Pill Cauldrons on the outer perimeter were arranged quite neatly, in rows and columns with consistent spacing. Although it was winding to walk through, they wouldn't get lost.

But the further in they went, the more the layout began to change.

First, the spacing between the Pill Cauldrons increased.

The Pill Cauldrons on the outer perimeter were about a meter apart, densely packed, almost touching each other.

By here, the distance between every two cauldrons had stretched to three or four meters, with some even five or six meters apart.

Then, the stone tablets grew larger.

Most of the stone tablets on the outer perimeter were half a meter tall, gray-black, and inscribed with only a dozen lines of text.

The stone tablets here had risen to over a meter in height, some even reaching one and a half meters. The tablet faces were wider, and the text was denser, with dozens of lines carved from top to bottom.

Su Mingyuan did not stop, but his eyes were constantly scanning the surroundings.

As they walked, Tao Zhe suddenly slowed his pace and tilted his head to look at a stone tablet nearby.

"Group Leader."

"Hmm?"

"The tablets on the outer perimeter were all inscribed with 'Outer Sect Disciple'," Tao Zhe said. "The tablets here are inscribed with 'Inner Sect Disciple'."

Su Mingyuan glanced at the nearest stone tablet. He didn't recognize the characters on it, but he could tell that the format of the inscription was different from the ones on the outer perimeter.

"So the Inner Sect Disciple cauldrons are buried inside, and the Outer Sect Disciple ones are on the outer perimeter?" Su Mingyuan asked.

"Correct," Tao Zhe said, looking around as he walked. "They are arranged by status. Outer Sect Disciples are in the outermost ring, and Inner Sect Disciples are in the next ring inward. If this pattern holds true—"

He glanced ahead.

"Further in should be Core Disciples, then Deacons, then Elders, and finally the Palace Master."

Su Mingyuan quickened his pace.

The quality of the Pill Cauldrons was also changing.

Most of the cauldrons on the outer perimeter were bronze-colored or pitch-black. Although the material was better than skyfall steel, they looked just average—simple, practical, and some even had cracks or chipped corners.

By the time they reached the Inner Sect Disciple ring, the colors of the cauldrons began to become more varied.

There were silver-white ones, dark red ones, and one that shimmered with a dark green luster. The patterns on the furnace bodies were also much more refined than those on the outer perimeter.

Occasionally, they could even see one or two cauldrons with a faint, lingering glow, flickering in this lightless environment as if there was still a trace of undissipated spiritual energy remaining inside the cauldron.

The three of them continued walking forward.

After walking for about five or six minutes, the spacing between the Pill Cauldrons increased once more, from five or six meters to over a dozen meters. Each cauldron had an independent stone platform with three steps, and the cauldron was placed on the platform.

The height of the stone tablets rose to nearly two meters.

Tao Zhe walked quickly to a tablet and bent down to look at it for a few seconds.

His eyebrows twitched.

"These are all Elders'."

Su Mingyuan walked over to look.

The text on the tablet face was more abundant than before, densely carved with over a hundred lines. The font was also different from the ones outside, with thinner and longer strokes.

"Inner Sect Elder Xu Pingshan, born in Heavenly Palace Era Year 1723, died in Heavenly Palace Era Year 2081, lived to the age of 358."

Tao Zhe read line by line. "Cultivation at Late Golden Core Stage. Skilled in refining Yuan-Returning Pill, spirit gathering pill, and Dragon-Tiger Pill. In his life, he refined 127,000 furnaces, with 103 failed furnaces. After being promoted to Elder, he was in charge of the Third Spirit Medicine Field, with 67 Disciples."

358 years old.

127,000 furnaces refined.

Only 103 failed furnaces.

Hearing these numbers from behind, Han Li paused in her steps.

She didn't speak, but Su Mingyuan heard her gasp.

Out of 127,000 furnaces, only 103 failed.

A success rate of over 99.9 percent.

Su Mingyuan did not linger too long before this tablet and continued walking forward.

The Pill Cauldrons in the Elder zone were clearly better than the ones before.

Each one was preserved intact, with no cracks or chipped corners on the furnace body.

The patterns on the surface emitted a faint glow in the darkness. Some of the patterns looked to Su Mingyuan like the kind of Restriction he had seen before on the Spirit-Control Daoist's Storage Pouch.

These Elders' life-bound Spirit Cauldrons were all inscribed with Restrictions.

Even though their owners had been dead for thousands of years, the Restrictions were still functioning.

The three of them passed through the Elder zone and walked for another three or four minutes.

The density of the Pill Cauldrons dropped sharply.

The space ahead suddenly became wide open, and the stone slabs on the ground were replaced by a different material, darker in color and feeling harder underfoot. The seams between the stone slabs were perfectly tight, as if they had been cut from a single piece of stone.

Only a few scattered cauldrons remained.

Each cauldron was thirty or forty meters apart, the stone platforms had seven steps, and the cauldrons were a size larger than those in the Elder zone. The stone tablets were even taller, reaching three meters, with wide faces and the shape of a Pill Furnace carved at the top.

Tao Zhe walked to the nearest tablet and glanced at the beginning.

"Group Leader Su, this is a Grand Elder's Pill Cauldron."

Su Mingyuan nodded and continued walking forward.

His gaze had already passed through the Grand Elder zone and seen the deepest part of the Cauldron Tomb.

It was different from everywhere else.

At the very center of the entire Cauldron Tomb, at the heart of the circle formed by all the Pill Cauldrons, stone tablets, and stone platforms, there was an empty space about twenty meters square.

The ground of this empty space was half a meter higher than the surroundings, like a natural platform.

The surface of the platform was polished extremely smooth, emitting a dull luster in the dim light.

In the very center of the platform stood a stone tablet.

The stone tablet was only one meter tall, much shorter than the three-meter-tall tablets in the Grand Elder zone.

The tablet face was also narrow, only two-thirds the width of a normal tablet.

But the material of the tablet was different.

All other stone tablets were gray-black, but this tablet was deep cyan, exactly the same color as those three ten-thousand-year Spirit Medicines in the valley. There wasn't much text on the tablet face, just three vertical lines, with only a few characters in each line.

In front of the stone tablet was a cauldron.

This cauldron was not big, only the size of a palm.

When Su Mingyuan reached the edge of the platform, his first reaction was: "Is this it?"

It felt a bit shabby.

At the very depths of the entire Cauldron Tomb, at the very center surrounded by millions of Pill Cauldrons, sat a small cauldron the size of a palm.

The small cauldron had three legs, a round belly, and an open mouth; its shape was exactly the same as the large cauldrons outside, just scaled down by several dozen times.

Placed on the ground, it reached about ankle height and could be lifted with one hand.

But the place where it differed from everything else around it was that—it was intact.

It wasn't the kind of intact that meant "preserved well," but the kind of intact that meant "brand new."

There wasn't a single crack on the furnace body, not a single chip, and not even any dust had fallen on it.

The patterns on the surface were clearly visible, and every carved line looked as if it had been carved just yesterday.

Su Mingyuan stood at the edge of the platform, staring at the small cauldron for two seconds.

The sounds of battle behind him continued.

Tao Zhe had already stepped onto the platform, walked quickly to the front of the stone tablet, and crouched down to identify the inscription.

There were only three lines of characters on the tablet.

He looked for five seconds, then stood up.

"That's right, this is the Dan King Cauldron," he said. "The life-bound Spirit Cauldron of Yun Yangzi, the first Palace Master of the Danding Heavenly Palace, the Heavenly Palace's ultimate treasure, and the head of all Pill Cauldrons."

Su Mingyuan walked onto the platform and stood still in front of the small cauldron.

The golden light reflected onto his shoes, feeling warm.

"This is it," Su Mingyuan said.

He crouched down to be at eye level with the small cauldron.

A palm-sized cauldron, with golden light flowing over it, sat quietly in the center of the platform.

Millions of Pill Cauldrons surrounded it, thousands of years of Legacy pointed toward it, and two tomb-guarding beasts guarded it.

Su Mingyuan looked at it for a few seconds, then looked up at Tao Zhe.

"How can I gain its recognition?"

Tao Zhe was still crouching in front of the stone tablet, reading the three lines of inscription from beginning to end once more.

Then he stood up and looked at Su Mingyuan, somewhat dejectedly.

"It doesn't say on the tablet."