Chapter 188: Communication with the Treasure Cauldron

The side hall was spacious and empty.

With the Old Emperor gone, Wang Ping no longer had to restrain himself. He began to pace the room and observe his surroundings, quickly realizing why the Old Emperor felt so at ease.

This place was built with the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron as its core.

In other words, unless someone can control the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron to a certain extent, even an expert at the Tribulation Transcending Third Layer wouldn't be able to escape.

Wang Ping's eyes lit up at the thought.

This was a fantastic location. It couldn't be more perfect for setting a trap or laying an ambush. If Kunyun were trapped in here, he wouldn't escape even if he sprouted wings!

As for how he would get out himself... Wang Ping wasn't in a hurry. Instead, he sat at the desk in the corner of the hall, picked up the prescription for the Ten-Thousand-Year Ageless Pill, and sent his consciousness into the Great Peace Mortuary. He activated Invoking Deities, swept his perception over the pill formula, and smiled.

As expected!

The prescription, and even the desk itself, was brimming with a massive amount of consciousness fragments. Without exception, every single one originated from the Old Emperor!

But that wasn't all.

There was also the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron itself. When Wang Ping approached the Treasure Cauldron, he could gather a vast quantity of the Old Emperor's consciousness fragments right from its belly.

Makes sense. This wasn't the Old Emperor's first time refining pills. To live this long, he has probably refined pills in this Treasure Cauldron hundreds or thousands of times. It's only natural for his consciousness fragments to accumulate... With these, I can invoke his possession dozens of times at the very least. That's more than enough.

Soon, the consciousness fragments were fully gathered.

Within the Great Peace Mortuary, the Old Emperor's portrait quickly surfaced on the Invoking Deities scripture scroll. Seeing this, Wang Ping shifted his thoughts and activated the scroll.

Come on, possess me!

In the next second, as the Old Emperor took possession, Wang Ping instantly felt an intense, indescribable sense of overwhelming fulfillment surge from his heart.

Rumble!

Wang Ping looked up. In a daze, he seemed to behold a vast, boundless ocean. It was a sea formed by the collective Destiny Patterns and fortunes of Great Shun's billions of subjects.

The weight of the masses gathered upon him; the will of the people flowed toward him.

As the ocean surged, he even heard a resounding dragon's roar. Soon after, he realized that a connection had formed between himself and this boundless sea.

This was the Emperor!

It seems to be some kind of array that links the Emperor of Great Shun with Great Shun's national destiny, using that national destiny to indirectly influence the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron.

Wang Ping pondered. He now understood how the Dashun Imperial Family controlled the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron, a Heavenly Work grade Spiritual Treasure. Just as he expected, this control relied on exploiting a loophole. The Old Emperor was by no means the true master of the Spiritual Treasure. Similarly, if the Dashun Imperial Family could exploit this loophole, so could he!

This is another wondrous use of Invoking Deities.

The moment a good brother is invoked to possess me, he immediately becomes my meat shield to resist ethereal, intangible concepts like destiny.

For most cultivators, destiny was a terrifying, mighty force. But for him, it was actually the easiest thing to deal with.

Let's test this out...

Walking up to the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron, Wang Ping tried to inject his magical power and spiritual sense into it once more.

Previously, the Treasure Cauldron had been extremely resistant to it; it was only when the Old Emperor intervened that it accepted him. Now, however, the cauldron's reaction had completely changed.

The moment Wang Ping's magical power and spiritual sense made contact, they were eagerly absorbed. The process was incredibly smooth; the cauldron was proactively accepting him to an absurd degree.

...The key really is the national destiny.

Wang Ping settled his mind and attempted to communicate with the Treasure Cauldron. After all, it was a Heavenly Work grade Spiritual Treasure. Being renowned as "Spiritual," it must have already developed sentience.

"Treasure Cauldron? Lord Cauldron? My lord?"

Wang Ping circulated his spiritual sense and called out to the Treasure Cauldron. As his spiritual sense dispersed, a voice soon drifted from the auspicious clouds floating at the mouth of the cauldron:

"What do you want? Didn't we just finish, Great Shun?"

It really was sentient!

Wang Ping suppressed his excitement in an instant, his mind racing. It asked what I want, not who I am. That means it didn't recognize me.

If it recognized that I wasn't the Old Emperor, its first reaction would definitely be to question me. This proves my guess was right. The Dashun Imperial Family merely exploited a loophole. The Treasure Cauldron doesn't consider them its master at all, treating them as a familiar friend at best. The Treasure Cauldron might not even recognize people.

It recognizes the national destiny!

In the eyes of the Treasure Cauldron Spirit, the entity it has been communicating with all this time isn't the successive Emperors of Great Shun, but a single entity known as Great Shun.

Thinking of this, Wang Ping's eyes suddenly lit up.

The fact that national destiny can be used to exploit a loophole in the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron means this Spiritual Treasure really likes national destiny, or rather, things related to Destiny Patterns and fortune.

In that case, what would happen if I fed it Destiny Patterns and fortune?

At this thought, Wang Ping immediately channeled Invoking Deities, called forth another one of his good brothers, Changyangzi, and stepped into the cauldron.

"Hm?!"

Instantly, the Treasure Cauldron Spirit reacted, its tone tinged with confusion. "Strange, Great Shun, you suddenly smell really good."

"This is different from before. This feeling... is it the People of Heaven?"

"Is it for me?"

"I want it!"

Hearing this, Wang Ping immediately commanded the Treasure Cauldron, cleanly refining away the Destiny Pattern and fortune on his body that belonged to Changyangzi, and injected it all into the Treasure Cauldron.

Faced with this Destiny Pattern and fortune, the Treasure Cauldron naturally accepted everything. Seeing this, Wang Ping simply invoked his good sister, Fairy Fengyuan, onto his body as well. Repeating the process, he tossed it into the cauldron too. For a moment, the originally rock-steady Treasure Cauldron actually began to tremble slightly, the colors of its auspicious clouds shifting.

"You actually have more?"

"The taste changed again... Great Shun, you finally understand! That's right, the People of Heaven all deserve to die. I like this. Is there more? I want more! I want more!"

In a daze, Wang Ping felt as if he were looking at a plump and pretty little toddler who, having just finished its candy and had its cravings stoked, was rolling on the ground throwing a tantrum for more.

"Sorry, I'm all out," Wang Ping said.

Wang Ping decisively stopped and shook his head, then carefully added, "But if you still want more, my lord, I will figure out a way to bring you some later."

"Okay, okay!"

The Treasure Cauldron Spirit instantly transmitted a joyous emotion. "After all these years, you've finally come to your senses. You finally know that the destiny of the People of Heaven is the most fragrant of all."

"If you had been like this earlier and knew to feed me the People of Heaven, rather than trying to fool me with the destiny of the masses like you did before, would I have gotten mad and ignored you?"

"Alright, we've made up now."

The moment its voice faded, Wang Ping suddenly felt the world spin. Immediately after, a vast and boundless image of the majestic earth reflected in his eyes.

"Is this... the Capital?!"

Wang Ping's pupils shrank as he instantly reacted. "Is this the Treasure Cauldron's true function? It can monitor the entire Capital? To what extent?"

Focusing his consciousness the next second, Wang Ping quickly spotted the Tribute Hall within the Capital. He saw Chenlong personally supervising Xugou's martial arts practice. Then, his gaze shifted toward the Imperial Palace, where he saw the Old Emperor, bursting with vitality after consuming the pill, vigorously enjoying the pleasures of the flesh in the inner harem.

Besides that, he could see much more.

As long as he wished it, there was nothing within the Capital he could not see. What was more, only he could see others; they had absolutely no way to detect his presence!

Not even someone at the Great Grandmaster Rank?

After all, the Divine Intent of someone at the Martial Dao Great Grandmaster Rank had almost reached a critical threshold, possessing an unreasonably sharp intuition. Yet at this moment, they couldn't detect his prying gaze.

Thinking of this, Wang Ping scanned the Capital once more, before sighing in his heart:

I couldn't find the First Seat.

Makes sense. The First Seat has managed to hide right under the Immortal Gate's nose for so long. How could the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron catch her traces so easily?

He continued to sense his surroundings for another moment.

This is incredible. It's not just spying... if I had the thought, the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron could probably teleport me right out of here!

Unimpeded access anywhere within the Capital!

And this was merely a convenience provided by the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron, not even the true mystical power of the Spiritual Treasure. It was clear its mighty power was truly unfathomable.

Regardless, the Old Emperor shouldn't have had this level of authority before me. Instead, because of this stunt I pulled, the Old Emperor will reap a free benefit. The next time he comes here, the Treasure Cauldron Spirit will probably treat the two of us as the same person and grant the Old Emperor the identical authority...

How could that be allowed?!

Wang Ping's usual philosophy was that earning a little meant taking a loss, and earning nothing meant suffering a massive loss. It made sense for him to mooch off the Old Emperor for free, but how could he let the Old Emperor mooch off him?

With that thought, Wang Ping hurriedly sent a voice transmission:

"My lord, you've mistaken me for someone else. I am not Great Shun."

"Ah? You're not?"

As soon as these words came out, the Treasure Cauldron Spirit immediately conveyed pure confusion, as if unable to understand. Seeing this, Wang Ping gritted his teeth and simply decided to come clean.

"My lord, this was only my disguise. I will remove my disguise now, take another look..."

With that said, Wang Ping immediately deactivated Invoking Deities.

As the connection with the national destiny faded, Wang Ping's true Destiny Pattern and fortune were exposed before the Treasure Cauldron Spirit, making him grow vigilant.

My current Destiny Pattern and fortune are actually the Immortal Gate True Transmission Destiny Pattern that Kunlun exchanged with me. In a sense, I am also a Person of Heaven right now. Fortunately, this Treasure Cauldron Spirit is a little dense. If it mistakes me for a Person of Heaven and turns hostile, I'll just quickly invoke the Old Emperor's possession again...

In the next second, the Treasure Cauldron Spirit gave its response.

However, this response took Wang Ping greatly by surprise. "Huh? You really aren't Great Shun. This feeling... are you Great Rebellion? Great Rebellion actually still has subjects?"

"..."

Wang Ping was stunned for a moment before immense joy welled up in his heart. It actually saw through it! That's right, my main body originated as one of the black-headed commoners. Doesn't that make me a subject of Great Rebellion?!

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Wang Ping nodded hurriedly. "Do you recognize me now? I am Great Rebellion, not Great Shun. Remember that? Great Shun hasn't actually come to its senses; the one who came to its senses is Great Rebellion!"

"So that's how it is. I was wondering why Great Shun suddenly had a change of heart. So it was Great Rebellion. That makes sense, that makes sense."

"I will remember you."

Before its voice even faded, Wang Ping felt a connection form between himself and the Ever-Suppressing Six Harmonies Cauldron in front of him. He could no longer hold back the smile on his face.

I've hit the jackpot!

Although he was still far from being called the master of the Spiritual Treasure, the sheer convenience brought by establishing a friendly relationship with one was simply unimaginable!

More importantly, the Treasure Cauldron Spirit was capable of communication... A Spiritual Treasure like this, suspected to be born from the former dynasty of Great Rebellion, definitely knew a lot of things.

For example—the Twenty-Four Qi!