Chapter 363. Refining the Xuzhou Cauldron, Providence Surges Again, the True Trial
Half of the mountain range ahead had already been cut away.
What remained was flat ground.
Searching it naturally became much easier.
Since the place was not well known, there were not many mutated beasts around to begin with.
On top of that, with the Golden-Winged Great Peng and the Spirit Monkey having arrived earlier, some of the mutated beasts had already fled.
As such, searching the place now was extremely convenient.
Very soon, Lu Yuan landed on the flat land. Waves of light flowed through his eyes, while strands of aura spread out from his body.
It was the power of Providence, resonating with a Cauldron. Compared with the Golden-Winged Great Peng, Lu Yuan was far more sensitive to this sort of aura.
Since the location had already been roughly confirmed, the search became even simpler.
"Found it."
Sure enough, in less than a quarter of an hour, Lu Yuan sensed a familiar aura of Providence.
It was precisely the kind of aura only one of those Cauldrons could emit.
Without hesitation, he raised a hand.
In an instant, a vast stretch of earth was overturned.
A massive platform, surrounded by four enormous stone pillars appeared.
Auspicious beasts were carved upon them. They looked ancient and profound, filled with an air of mystery.
Of course, none of that actually mattered.
What mattered was the black cauldron standing at the very center.
It was a square cauldron with four legs and two handles, and emanated an indescribable aura.
It stood there silently, as though it had been placed in this spot long, long ago.
"The Xuzhou Cauldron?" Looking at the cauldron before him, Lu Yuan gave it a slight sense and discovered that the three cauldrons within his body were resonating with it. Their auras seemed to connect into one, and in that instant, he also learned the name of this cauldron.
It was indeed one of the Nine Cauldrons.
Without delay, Lu Yuan gave it a moment's thought, before drawing upon the power within his body.
The next moment, the Xuzhou Cauldron turned into a streak of light and merged into him.
"Four cauldrons have been found now. There's still five out there. You'll have to work a little harder. Contact the other beast kings as well. If any of them finds something, inform me immediately."
After taking the Xuzhou Cauldron, Lu Yuan turned and instructed the Golden-Winged Great Peng and the Spirit Monkey in the distance.
He could not be sure that all the Nine Cauldrons were within the Milky Way Starfield.
But for every additional cauldron he found, his foundation and his means would grow a little stronger.
For some reason, Lu Yuan always had the feeling that as he gathered more of the Nine Cauldrons, a faint sense of looming danger was drawing steadily closer.
Yet whenever he tried to investigate it deeper, he found no leads at all.
So now, Lu Yuan's only thought was to raise his strength as quickly as possible.
"Yes, Master." The Golden-Winged Great Peng nodded at once. It knew exactly what to do.
As for Lu Yuan, after obtaining the Xuzhou Cauldron, he intended to refine it and then confer more gods. With that in mind, he chose to leave immediately.
Soon, only the Golden-Winged Great Peng and the Spirit Monkey remained in the mountain range that had been reduced to half its former size.
"Let's keep searching for the remaining of the Nine Cauldrons. I wonder how much progress the Peacock King and the others have made," the Spirit Monkey said, sounding rather anxious. It knew that while everything appeared calm on the surface, it was merely just surficial.
Right now, gathering all Nine Cauldrons would be of enormous help to King Lu. Under those circumstances, how could it not be anxious?
"Mm. No matter what, we do our best." The Golden-Winged Great Peng nodded in response.
After that, the two beast kings said no more.
They tore open the void and left directly.
Not even an hour after they departed, black mist suddenly began to emerge from the huge platform where the Xuzhou Cauldron had been placed.
It shot straight into the sky.
It carried a strange aura, as though it did not belong to this world at all, and it was exactly the same as the aura from Guang Chengzi's Dao ground.
However, the black mist lasted only a short while before disappearing instantly, as though it had never appeared in the first place.
At Mount Tai, Lu Yuan was seated cross-legged inside a room.
Just like before, he was back in seclusion.
But this time, he was not cultivating or evolving.
He was refining the fourth cauldron, the Xuzhou Cauldron.
The process went very smoothly.
After all, this was not his first time, and the process itself was not especially difficult. In total, it took less than three days to complete.
Boom—
The moment Lu Yuan finished refining the Xuzhou Cauldron, the cauldron merged directly into the Celestial Emperor's Edict.
At the same time, an extremely powerful surge of Providence burst forth from within his body.
At that moment, he discovered that the true names of those written upon the Celestial Emperor's Edict had grown far brighter than before, like dazzling stars.
And the name representing himself, "Emperor Yuan" was the one and only blazing sun among them.
More importantly, Lu Yuan also saw that the purple aura emitted by the Celestial Emperor's Ancient Token in his mind had grown even stronger than before.
Some majestic and invisible power seemed to be within.
"Does the Celestial Emperor's Ancient Token truly represent the Celestial Emperor? And if so, how many remaining tokens are still out there?"
Sensing this change, Lu Yuan's gaze turned thoughtful.
He had always known that the Celestial Emperor's Ancient Token was no ordinary object.
Perhaps it was the most special thing in the entire starry cosmos. It clearly contained boundless power, yet he still had no clue how to awaken or use it.
Everything will have to proceed slowly. Sooner or later, the answer would reveal itself.
Letting out a soft sigh, Lu Yuan said nothing more and rose to his feet.
Now that the Providence within the Celestial Emperor's Edict had grown stronger, the number of people he could confer had increased as well. He had no intention of wasting such an opportunity.
For him, and for the whole of Earth, the stronger the Celestial Court became, the better.
This time, he intended to confer titles upon more members of the Celestial Court.
As time passed, more and more people joined the Celestial Court.
At the same time, those Awakened all possessed excellent strength and potential, so if one counted all of the Celestial Court's members now, their number already exceeded ten thousand.
These were the people currently walking furthest ahead on the path of evolution on Earth.
And now, they had all gathered within the Celestial Court.
Seeing the Celestial Court grow more powerful by the day, Elder Ji and Elder Yun were overjoyed.
They felt that for Earth, and for humanity as a whole, the existence of Lu Yuan was an immense blessing.
If not for him, no one could say what this world would have become, or just how shitty the situation might have been.
So to them, it had been the right choice to entrust everything to King Lu.
As for the younger generation, they had long since come to regard Lu Yuan as the person they respected above all others.
During this time, the Jiang Clan's resources were also sent into Earth by special means.
In short, everything was moving in the best possible direction.
Even so, no one truly let down their guard.
Everyone knew that the real test was still awaiting them.
