owlsbooks Chapter 104 The Cicada Awaits
Chapter 104 The Cicada Awaits
On the horizon, a ray of sunlight pierced through the dark clouds and fell upon the calm sea.
The wind was calm and the waves were vast and blue.
The old man's hand froze in mid-air.
He was stunned.
"Hmm? Why is this junior still conscious?! Wasn't he already under my control? Why can't I move?!"
The unexpected turn of events caught the old man off guard, causing a crack to appear in his previously confident mindset.
Then, something even more shocking happened—
Something is slowly rising from beneath the sea.
It was a three-legged, round-bodied cauldron.
It is over a thousand feet long, with an ancient and simple body. The surface is engraved with simple patterns, exuding an ancient and mysterious aura.
It slowly rises from the seabed, with seawater cascading down its body like hundreds of waterfalls.
The ancient cauldron rose without making a sound, but the invisible pressure it exerted was more awe-inspiring than any sound.
The old man finally saw his location clearly.
He was currently enclosed within the mouth of this ancient cauldron.
That hundred-foot-tall divine consciousness avatar was as insignificant as a frog at the bottom of a well in front of this thousand-foot-tall ancient cauldron.
Chen Bai stood tall on the flatboat, his robes fluttering gently in the now calm sea breeze.
He looked up at the hundred-foot-tall giant standing stiffly inside the cauldron and smiled slightly.
"Old scoundrel."
His voice wasn't loud, but it echoed clearly within the space conjured by his sea of consciousness: "You're fortunate to be alive, yet you won't eat from the five-cupped cauldrons; to die, you'll be cooked in them."
The old man's expression suddenly changed drastically.
He finally realized that the junior was probably setting a trap for him. For some reason, he was not affected by his divine sense. The purpose of this play was to lure him into this sea of consciousness.
Once he arrived at this place of consciousness, Chen Bai gained some ability to counterattack, at least leveling up the gap between them in terms of rank and realm.
If I'm not mistaken, this junior should still have a backup plan...
After figuring this out.
The old man used all his strength to break free from the restraints, wanting to transform into a beam of white light and rush out of the cauldron.
But it was too late.
Chen Bai mobilized the power of his sea of consciousness to firmly suppress it.
Immediately afterwards, the Guiyuan Creation Cauldron above the sea of consciousness suddenly lit up with a dazzling white light.
An invisible vortex appeared at the mouth of the cauldron, and an irresistible suction force surged out from the cauldron, firmly locking in the divine consciousness avatar of the Yao family patriarch.
"No--"
The old man finally lost his composure, his once dignified and otherworldly face now filled with terror and disbelief.
He struggled desperately, the hundred-foot-tall white giant of light thrashing about inside the cauldron, its fists pounding wildly against the cauldron walls, producing a muffled, thunderous roar.
However, no matter how much he struggled, the suction force grew stronger and stronger, like a swamp, swallowing his legs, torso, arms... and even his head inch by inch, dragging him into the depths of the vortex.
Before the Creation Returning to Origin Cauldron, even a spiritual clone of a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator could hardly contend with its power. It was like an ant trying to shake a tree, or a mantis trying to stop a chariot.
"You brat! You dare kill me?!"
I am but a divine consciousness avatar. If it is destroyed, the true self will definitely investigate thoroughly.
Then, let's see where you run to! Even if you escape to the ends of the earth, I will tear you to pieces—"
Even with only half his head remaining visible before being completely swallowed by the small cauldron, the old man was still unwilling to perish.
"Noisy."
Chen Bai looked at him calmly, his tone indifferent.
"If I didn't act convincingly, how could I possibly lure you in, you old scoundrel?"
It turned out that he had already considered the possibility of an ancestor using their divine sense to protect themselves from Yao Ye's dying words. After all, those hundreds of cultivation novels he had read in his previous life hadn't been for nothing; this kind of old-fashioned trope was very familiar to Chen Bai...
Besides these, there are other scams like: beating the young and the old coming; leaving hidden dangers or secrets in cultivation techniques and selling them at extremely low prices; and instead of showing off in front of others, taking a step back and protecting everyone in front of you. In this great world of immortals, even though the demonic path has been extinct for tens of thousands of years, and there are no longer cunning demonic cultivators who creatively employ all sorts of bizarre and diverse fraudulent methods.
But the devil is always one step ahead of the saint.
The demons in the open can be eliminated, but the invisible demons in people's hearts will always exist, like maggots clinging to bones.
The difference between immortals and demons lies in a single thought.
Let's not get into idle talk.
At first, Chen Bai was indeed captivated by the divine sense of the Yao family patriarch, but with the "Purple Yingxia Amber True Talisman" left by Fairy Yueyi, he could purify his mind and spirit, and be protected from evil spirits.
Soon the true talisman activated on its own, bringing him back to his senses.
He also listened to the entire monologue of the Yao family patriarch.
After a quick thought, Chen Bai decided to play along.
The reason why he pretended to be intimidated by the old man's divine sense and unable to move was to confirm the key point: once the divine sense clone was introduced into the sea of consciousness, and then the control of the sea of consciousness was taken back by surprise, in this way, the divine sense clone of the Yao family ancestor would appear in the sea of consciousness under his control and would naturally be marked as belonging to his control.
Therefore, it is logical to use the small cauldron's recycling ability to forcibly recycle the divine consciousness clone!
This crucial point was clearly answered after Chen Bai communicated with the small cauldron using his spiritual sense.
"That actually works!"
Thus, this thrilling and miraculous reversal of fortune occurred! Although there were enormous risks involved, success would mean that he could retrieve a Foundation Establishment True Person's divine consciousness clone!
The old man's eyes suddenly widened.
He finally gave up.
From beginning to end, it was these insignificant juniors, like ants, who were putting on an act.
Those struggling, powerless expressions were all waiting for him to willingly walk into the trap.
But he actually jumped in, thinking he could easily possess a rogue cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage and take away Xiao Jingyan's legacy.
"A dignified Foundation Establishment Ancestor, wise and insightful throughout his life, was actually outmaneuvered by a mere brat..."
The old man tried to open his mouth to curse, but the vortex had already swallowed him whole.
The hundred-foot giant inside the cauldron was shredded into countless tiny specks of light, like dandelions scattered by the wind.
A flash of white light swept through, collecting all the shattered specks of divine consciousness.
The small cauldron trembled slightly, emitting a low hum, as if it were chewing on this rare "ingredient".
After an incense stick's time, the tremors stopped, and a huge, dark ball of light slowly emerged from the cauldron's mouth.
Chen Bai rubbed his hands together.
This was the first time he had ever seen a ball of light of this color. Generally speaking, the level of the ball of light given after the small cauldron recycled materials was determined by his current cultivation level, and was either white, red, gold, or seven-colored.
This dark (black) light cluster should be somewhere between gold and rainbow colors.
Although it is far less precious than the seven-colored "True Dragon Essence Blood," it is still a Foundation Establishment True Person, at least two major realms higher than Chen Bai's current cultivation level, so the reward given should not be too bad.
[Recovery: Mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator's "Divine Consciousness Avatar" *1]