Chapter 2056: Wood Lodging True Person

Everyone heard it, the last word Qingyang said—it was a non-sequitur.

Liu Qingdao beside him whispered: "She's gone."

He Lingchuan stared blankly at the flute in his palm for a long time; no one knew what he was thinking.

Then he put away the flute and bowed solemnly to Qingyang's corpse in farewell.

This was a formidable enemy, and also a worthy one.

After Miao Zhantian fell, she alone used a handful of rotten cards in her hand to stubbornly block He Lingchuan and the Dragon God Army commander for nearly half a year.

Unfortunately, fortune was not on her side.

No wonder Qingyang National Master—these few words from the Nine Abyss Great Emperor's evaluation of her are enough.

He jumped down from the tree and said to Luo Xie: "Treat with courtesy, bury with honor."

Qingyang National Master was a person of outstanding talent; he should depart with dignity.

Luo Xie immediately agreed and personally climbed the tree.

Shituo and the others also jumped down from the tree, looking left and right.

"Where is the Wood Lodging True Person?" Shituo fumed, "This bastard escaped!"

After the fight, it walked with a slight limp, so it reverted to the size of a young calf, reducing the burden on its legs.

He Lingchuan extended the Floating Life Blade, picked up a broken vine on the ground, and watched it gradually turn to ash.

Liu Qingdao tapped the ground with his toe: "Look, this cauldron is still alive."

From the fragments of the Wood King Cauldron sprouted countless roots, intertwining and grasping each other, piece by piece, one after another; though slow, it seemed to be reassembling itself.

Though the cauldron had suffered heavy damage, it immediately sought to repair itself.

He Lingchuan took two steps, and the divine bone necklace in his chest suddenly heated up, becoming scorching hot in an instant.

It wanted to eat something—especially so!

He immediately lowered his head to search.

Not long after, he kicked aside a large stone and discovered something unusual:

A fragment of the Wood King Cauldron was undergoing deformation.

This was an inconspicuous piece; originally, the Wood King Cauldron's skin was brass-colored, more like metal than wood. Its deformation was also strange, as if it wanted to re-knead into a small wooden cauldron, but at most only palm-sized.

And as it deformed, it sank into the ground; yellow mud had already submerged past the waist. If He Lingchuan had arrived a few breaths later, it might have already escaped underground.

"What's there to run from?" He swung his halberd like an axe and fiercely chopped the fragment.

Clang—it shattered cleanly.

After the Wood King Cauldron was broken, it was no longer so hard to smash.

He Lingchuan then dug out a small blue-green ball from within, only the size of a quail egg, translucent with amber hue, yet still elastic when pinched.

As soon as he unearthed it, the ball trembled incessantly, even becoming slippery, trying to roll from He Lingchuan's hand.

He Lingchuan couldn't let it escape; he gripped it tightly and fed it to the divine bone necklace.

The necklace swallowed it in one gulp, and the heat subsided.

Meanwhile, the fragments of the Wood King Cauldron on the ground remained motionless, no longer attempting to repair or reassemble themselves.

This shows the importance of that blue-amber bead.

At this moment, the Dragon God Army also brought forward a prisoner.

This unfortunate soul had previously had a foot cut off by the Floating Life Blade, unable to walk or run fast; when the Qing guards retreated, he was simply discarded.

But he had remained outside the Wood King Cauldron all along, witnessing the entire process.

He Lingchuan asked him a few questions; upon hearing that Mu Su True Person had flung himself onto the Wood King Cauldron and merged with it, he couldn't help but be somewhat astonished:

"You mean, he never separated from the cauldron again?"

The prisoner's reply was equally definite: "At least as far as we can tell, no!"

Shituo exclaimed in surprise: "Then what's going on? Did Mu Su True Person sacrifice himself for the cauldron?"

I've only seen magical artifacts shatter to protect their master; I've never seen a master die to protect an artifact.

Liu Qingdao beside him, after a moment's thought, said: "Perhaps this is a blinding tactic?"

"Ah, what does that mean?" Shituo asked his senior brother, "You mean he escaped? But if he escaped, why bother putting on an act in front of these prisoners?"

"No, I mean, perhaps 'Mu Su True Person' itself is just a facade."

Upon hearing this, He Lingchuan already understood Liu Qingdao's meaning: "Elder Liu believes 'Mu Su True Person' is merely an external incarnation, and its true nature is the Wood King Cauldron?"

Some immortals refine external incarnations, also called external dharma forms; but can a cauldron refine a human-shaped dharma form?

Tsk tsk, inverting heaven's order.

He Lingchuan could entertain this idea because Qianhuan True Person had done something similar—his true form was a giant clamshell, yet he refined several human-shaped dharma forms.

"Not bad. Perhaps it deliberately created this illusion, making others mistakenly believe the human form is the true body of Mu Su True Person. Anyway, dharma forms constantly accompany the true body—who is primary and who is secondary doesn't really matter. One must know that in ancient times, many immortals gained fame not because their personal strength was formidable, but because their natal artifacts were exceptionally powerful. So it could still get away with this."

He Lingchuan nodded.

He had read many classics in the Panlong World, including the ancient texts sent by Ling Mountain, which mentioned that ancient immortals often had two paths to choose: either cultivate oneself intensely, or specialize in artifacts.

Cultivating oneself intensely is the most fundamental, but also difficult, bitter, and dangerous—many who are careless end up dead from gas buildup.

Specializing in artifacts is relatively safer, provided one has a few exceptionally powerful artifacts, then constantly polishes, strengthens, and nourishes them—after all, they are natal artifacts and cannot run off to someone else. The stronger they are, the stronger the master becomes by extension.

Of course, those with exceptionally abundant resources can walk both paths.

Liu Qingdao pointed at the fragments on the ground: "You shattered the Wood King Cauldron—this is a one-step destruction of its true body, the external incarnation flung back to empower the true body, but also powerless to turn the tide."

He Lingchuan immediately recalled the blue-amber bead swallowed by the divine bone necklace. The insight of the Great Vessel Jar, as always, is venomous.

Shituo is the last to join the Illusory Sect immortals among his peers, his knowledge not as broad as his senior brothers'; at this moment he also clicked his tongue: "A mere artifact, yet it can cultivate into a demon immortal. But what kind of tree did the Great Emperor throw out? Truly remarkable."

At this time, the Dragon God Army soldiers also stood beneath the giant tree, looking up in awe.

Everyone had heard of the immortal battle that just occurred here, and their reverence for the Dragon God grew even deeper.

Within a quarter of an hour, a divine tree of such towering height sprang from nothing, directly bursting the immortal's treasure cauldron—this truly sounds like a miracle only a dragon god could accomplish!

He Lingchuan smiled and did not hide it from them: "Qingyang is right; this is the work of the Great Square Vase, combining the properties of the Dao-Inquiry Tree and the Ju Luo Wood."

In the past, he would never have revealed this secret, even if beaten to death.

But now, he no longer needs to deliberately conceal his relationship with the Great Square Vase.

Moreover, the two elders of the Phantom Sect have long known that He Lingchuan can wield the power of the Great Square Vase; to continue hiding it would be to treat them as outsiders.

Indeed, upon hearing this, Sudut let out an "oh" and ceased further questioning, apparently finding the answer quite reasonable.

He Lingchuan dispatched two teams to pursue Yuan Xuan and the Qing Wei, while he and the two immortals withdrew their forces and headed back.

Along the way, Sudut recounted the battle's details to his senior brother.

Liu Qingdao also listened in astonishment, never expecting He Lingchuan's cultivation to have advanced to such a degree.