Chapter 300: Divine Farmer Cauldron, Sisui Bureau

After a brief silence, Wang Ping struck.

Talking was too much of a hassle, and he lacked the time. Rather than match wits with the thin youth before him, he decided on a simpler method.

"Smack!"

A split second later, Wang Ping's palm clamped onto Wang Kan's scalp, instantly startling the youth who called himself a Feather Scholar but was, in truth, a mere Mortal.

But right then, the Daoist robe on Wang Kan's body suddenly billowed. Wang Ping saw it clearly: without any magic power injected or spiritual sense to drive it, the robe activated on its own. It displayed a profound power comparable to a standard magic artifact, attempting to help the youth break free from his grasp.

This was, of course, entirely pointless.

Let alone a standard artifact, even a top-tier magic treasure pinned down by Wang Ping at this distance would be completely immobilized against the sheer physical might of Clasping Mountains and Leaping Seas.

Thus, Wang Ping paid it no mind.

Wang Kan, on the other hand, felt only sheer horror. 'It's useless? The Crimson-Brown Precept Robe is a lower-grade anomaly item. How can it be useless against this person?'

After all, he had challenged that famous, major evil phantom—the Three Caverns Mystic Temple—just to obtain this very Daoist robe. Whenever he walked through ordinary evil phantom domains, he was virtually immune to all magic. Many of his colleagues in the Sisui Bureau envied him for this fateful encounter.

Yet now, this precept robe was actually useless?

'Is he a major evil phantom? Or an even higher-ranked High Merit? Impossible. If such an entity existed, the Sisui Bureau would definitely have records of it...'

Wang Kan's consciousness rapidly sank into darkness.

"A Mortal, as expected."

Wang Ping clamped down on his head. A mere Mortal naturally couldn't resist him. His Tribulation Transcending Second Layer spiritual sense blasted into the youth's sea of consciousness and directly began a soul-search.

Naturally, because the gap in their strength was so vast, this kind of soul-search wouldn't inflict any real damage. At most, the youth would feel as though he had pulled an all-nighter, leaving him incomparably exhausted... Soon, as numerous clues were extracted from the youth's memories, a look of realization gradually dawned on Wang Ping's face.

"It really is another world!"

"Evil phantoms, which are heavily suppressed and virtually unknown in the Great Shun Dynasty, have actually become supreme treasures everyone yearns for in this Great Sui Dynasty?"

That begged the question.

As far as Wang Ping knew, evil phantoms, much like the black-headed commoners, were legacies of the Great Rebellion. So which Great Rebellion world did this so-called Great Sui Dynasty belong to?

Wang Ping soon had his answer:

'The Divine Farmer Cauldron or the God-Conferring Platform?'

The Immortal Gate's three great spectacles, ranking alongside the Eight Trigrams Furnace, were all suspected to be relics left behind by the Great Rebellion. Only these two worlds had a high probability of containing evil phantoms.

After some thought, Wang Ping reached a conclusion:

'It is most likely the Divine Farmer Cauldron.'

'After all, I heard that unrest once broke out within the Divine Farmer Cauldron. And this Great Sui Dynasty, a world where evil phantoms run rampant, is clearly a bit amiss.'

In Wang Kan's memories, the Great Sui Dynasty once had extraordinary persons capable of flying through the sky and burrowing through the earth. They had slaughtered the masses, carrying mountains of blood debt on their backs.

That was until the establishment of the Sisui Bureau.

"A Celestial Master emerged. By rearing evil phantoms, he extracted all sorts of anomaly items from them to arm Mortals, granting them extraordinary might."

"Under the leadership of that Celestial Master, the Sisui Bureau swept through the sects of extraordinary persons across the land, toppling their mountains and smashing their temples. They killed countless extraordinary persons and pacified the chaotic era of the Great Sui. To this day, the Great Sui Dynasty enjoys national peace and prosperity. Everyone strives for progress, and evil phantoms have even become a part of everyday life..."

"Incredible!"

The more Wang Ping examined Wang Kan's memories, the more astonished he became. It was glaringly obvious that this Celestial Master of the Sisui Bureau was an outstanding figure similar to the First Seat.

There were, of course, differences.

'The First Seat started from nothing to forge the path of the Martial Dao. Moreover, the Great Shun Dynasty inside the Eight Trigrams Furnace has too deep of a background, with True Persons actively laying out schemes there.'

'Compared to that, the Great Sui Dynasty inside the Divine Farmer Cauldron is much weaker. At the very least, the Grand Ancestor of the Great Sui wasn't a Corpse Dissolution Immortal, so his political power was easily usurped by that Celestial Master. Furthermore, for some unknown reason, the Immortal Gate's Qi Refining practitioners and True Persons didn't intervene. The environment he had to work with was much better than the First Seat's.'

A moment later, Wang Ping withdrew his hand.

Wang Kan collapsed to the ground with a thud, falling completely unconscious. Looking at him, Wang Ping gained a brand new understanding of household immortals and the so-called evil phantoms.

'This thing can actually traverse worlds!'

As he pondered, Wang Ping slowly walked over to the shrine in the center of the ancestral hall. Having seen Wang Kan's memories, he already knew exactly what he had to do next.

'This ancestral hall is actually just a layer of profound mystery created by the household immortal to filter its shamanic disciples. By completing a set number of household immortal tasks, one can raise their shamanic disciple rank. Only by doing so can one enter the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode where the household immortal's true body is located.'

Thinking of this, Wang Ping glanced down at the Wooden Token in his hand.

This was the lowest-grade Shamanic Disciple Token. Above it were the Iron Token, copper token, silver token, and gold token... To enter the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode, one needed at least an Iron Token.

'That old bastard... he really harbored ill intentions!'

By deliberately giving him the lowest-grade Wooden Token, the Heaven-Stealing Thief clearly wanted to trap him within the household immortal's mysteries, thereby stalling for time.

"Clatter."

As he stood before the shrine, it suddenly trembled slightly. A yellowed slip of paper tumbled out from within, bearing a striking line of small text.

It detailed a time and a location.

Simultaneously, a ray of light materialized by the west door of the ancestral hall.

"Is this telling me to pass through this door, head to the destination, resolve the evil phantom about to appear there, and then rush back here to report my success?"

Wang Ping chuckled.

According to Wang Kan's memories, as long as one completed ten such household immortal tasks, their shamanic disciple rank would rise, upgrading them to an Iron Token disciple.

However, within his memories lay an even more efficient method.

"Shing—!"

Without the slightest hesitation, Wang Ping directly drew his Battle-Victorious Demon-Quelling Blade. With a resonant ring of steel, he slashed down with explosive force, cleaving the shrine before him cleanly in half!

"Boom!"

In an instant, the shrine shattered. Piercing shrieks erupted throughout the entire ancestral hall, and countless overlapping ghostly shadows surged out like a bursting dam!

'So this is the evil phantom, Earth Official Pardoning Sins...'

Wang Ping watched the howling ghostly shadows surge forward with keen interest. In Wang Kan's memories, this was the price for smashing the ancestral hall's shrine to forcefully upgrade one's rank.

Withstand it and survive, and you would be promoted.

Fail to withstand it, and you would become the material for the next shrine.

Therefore, unless one was a High Merit of the Sisui Bureau—someone whose status sat far above a Feather Scholar and who supposedly possessed the power to move mountains and fill seas—no one dared to attempt this.

As for the evil phantom known as Earth Official Pardoning Sins, Wang Kan's memories showed that it was also recorded in the archives of the Sisui Bureau, and in extreme detail at that:

'This was a ritual used to deliver the souls of the dead during an ancient, untraceable era under the rule of a mighty dynasty. It drew wandering souls and wild ghosts in, offered them ghost food and ghost clothing, and then safely sent them off to reincarnate. This was the system of life, death, and reincarnation established by that dynasty.'

Without a doubt, this referred to the Great Rebellion.

To deal with this evil phantom, the Sisui Bureau had long since devised a method: acquire the Spirit Clothes and Soul Rice usable by departed spirits beforehand.

By feeding these wandering ghosts until they were full, changing them into clothes suitable for reincarnation, and delivering them one by one, a person could safely escape their grasp.

Afterward, one could even extract an anomaly item from the aftermath.

Its name was the Sin-Absolving Register, and its quality was extremely high. It was said to hold the profound mystery of averting disasters and absolving misfortunes; as long as one wrote their name in it, evil phantoms would never come knocking.

'...Too much of a hassle.'

Having arrived so suddenly, Wang Ping naturally didn't possess any Spirit Clothes or Soul Rice. But compared to those, he had a much simpler method of delivering souls.

"Insignificant tricks. To think you'd dare wield an axe before Lu Ban in my presence." Wang Ping flicked his sleeve. With a shift of his will, the roaring sound of a surging river instantly echoed from within his body.

Clasping Mountains and Leaping Seas!

At this moment, it was as if a blazing sun had crashed into the gloomy ancestral hall. Brilliant blood-qi illuminated the temple, and every surging ghostly shadow was instantly ignited by it.

"Shreeeee!!!"

Wherever the fiery light swept past, all the ghostly shadows let out piercing shrieks of agony. With just a single breath from Wang Ping, every last ghostly shadow was thoroughly 'delivered'.

Immediately afterward, the entire ancestral hall began to collapse and shatter. The lifelike brick and stone architecture dissolved into warped light and shadows before dimming. Once the profound mystery of the household immortal fully dispersed, a brand new palatial hall entered Wang Ping's sights—illuminated by the light of heaven, bright and radiant to the extreme.

Heavenly Craft Cave Abode!

Compared to the gloomy temple created by the household immortal, the palatial hall manifesting before him could only be described as grand and majestic, revealing the true atmosphere of an immortal sect.

"Clank."

Wang Ping looked down, only to see the Wooden Token for a shamanic disciple in his hand shimmering with a metallic luster before transforming into a heavy, solid Iron Token.

Did this count as a promotion?

He could be promoted without even formally becoming a shamanic disciple?

Wang Ping raised his eyes and saw a Spirit Tablet resting inside the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode. The words 'Household Dragon-Suppressing Immortal' were written on it. That was the true body of this evil phantom.

'Forget it... It has nothing to do with me.'

The real danger lay where the household immortal's true body resided, deep within the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode. However, he didn't need to go that deep.

He only needed to enter the cave abode itself.

As for this household immortal, the Great Sui Dynasty, and the Divine Farmer Cauldron, he currently had no interest in paying them any mind.

However, after this experience, Wang Ping had formed a judgment in his heart regarding the so-called evil phantoms: 'These evil phantoms are, in truth, ruined achievements.'

Back then, the Great Rebellion had undoubtedly established many great achievements.

The most core portions of these achievements had remained to this day, such as Purging the Stale Qi of the Six Heavens, or humanity's qi breaking away from the sequence of heaven and earth.

Yet there were still many achievements that hadn't been preserved, but had instead been destroyed alongside the Great Rebellion... But just like with the black-headed commoners, the Great Rebellion had used some special method to forcefully anchor these achievements—which should have been destroyed and dispersed—to this world. Thus, evil phantoms came to be. This was the origin of evil phantoms!

'The Great Rebellion of the past was truly too outrageous.'

No wonder they could wage war against both immortals and Buddhists at the same time.

Glorious even in defeat.

Wang Ping felt somewhat emotional. But as he approached the brilliantly glowing Heavenly Craft Cave Abode, he quickly restrained his expression and cast aside the stray thoughts in his mind.

"Crunch!"

Stepping over the threshold and formally entering the Heavenly Craft Cave Abode, Wang Ping took a deep breath. He then formed hand seals and executed the spell technique Tianqu had passed to him earlier.

'Indeterminate Illusionary Form Technique!'

The light of the spell technique kindled quietly like a candle flame within the resplendent, empty palatial hall. Immediately after, a sigh rang out beside Wang Ping's ear:

"You've finally arrived."

The Mysterious Wood Qi Daoist Master!