The Cauldron Quest Tournament officially began after a year of preparation.
At your advanced age, you naturally couldn't participate, only able to be a spectator on the sidelines.
While watching the matches, you made an unexpected discovery.
That utterly ordinary Limitless Sword Sect disciple who saved you ten years ago was actually the Sect Master of the Limitless Sword Sect!
His name wasn't important; he had a title the entire world knew better—Sword Lord!
When you looked at Sword Lord, his sharp gaze instantly locked onto you, and he gave you a slight nod.
You also smiled politely in return.
That was the extent of your relationship with him, purely an acquaintance you'd nod to.
The old monk appeared beside you.
"You know Sword Lord?"
"He saved me once and gave me a jade token."
You pulled out that jade token.
The old monk glanced at it and smiled faintly.
"Amitabha..."
Then, he returned the bronze war sword and jade slip he snatched from you last year.
"After this humble monk's appraisal, this sword has no affinity with my Buddha, and the cultivation method recorded in this jade slip is definitely not a Demonic Path technique. Benefactor may use them with peace of mind."
You couldn't hold it in anymore and laughed out loud.
"No, old bald donkey, aren't you being too cowardly? Sword Lord and I have no real connection."
The monk smiled.
"Yes, you and Sword Lord have no connection."
"Don't you not believe me!"
"Yes, I don't believe you."
You felt like you were wearing a wall-gazer's smile; no matter what you said, the old monk wouldn't believe you.
Forget it, getting these two good items back wasn't bad either.
The Flame Iron Heavy Sword was broken, so having this Earth-Grade quality bronze war sword as a replacement was good.
The cultivation method in the jade slip was very complex, an Earth-Grade Martial Art. You felt mastering this technique probably wouldn't be easy and would take considerable time.
You've known this old monk for a year now.
Apart from being a bit greedy, he didn't have any other flaws.
Previously, when you were selling demonic beast materials in the Trading Market, he didn't secretly try to ambush you or anything, and was even willing to spend Spirit Crystals to buy things he needed.
The monk called himself Zhen Pin, an unaffiliated disciple of Xiliang's Vajra Temple.
"Unaffiliated? Doesn't that mean they didn't accept you?"
"But this humble monk's heart yearns for it."
So this old monk was actually a rogue cultivator.
You felt his cultivation realm was quite a bit higher than yours, probably due to better innate talent.
But for a rogue cultivator, innate talent alone was rarely enough to surpass the Soul Tempering realm, so he probably had good luck too.
The Cauldron Quest Tournament lasted several months.
Various factions sent their young disciples, who fought fiercely on the arena stage.
You discovered that among these young martial artists under twenty, there were actually those who had reached the Golden Body realm!
"These geniuses are too outrageous, what kind of innate talent do they have? Heaven-Grade talent?"
In your three simulations, three lifetimes spent chasing the martial path, think of all the hardships you endured, all the roads you walked, just to barely glimpse the threshold of the Golden Body realm.
These youngsters whose feathers aren't even fully grown were already at Golden Body!
Seeing you complain about the geniuses, Zhen Pin smiled and said.
"A martial artist's talent isn't just innate talent. Comprehension, physique, Dao-heart, and that mysterious and profound destiny together constitute a person's talent."
"You're saying I'm not just inferior in innate talent, but lag behind them by a huge margin in every aspect, right?"
"Amitabha..."
Finally, the results of the Cauldron Quest Tournament were announced.
The Limitless Sword Sect's peerless genius, Wan Jianyi, took first place.
That guy was simply too strong.
He was only at the mere Golden Body realm, but his comprehension of the Limitless Sword Dao even surpassed some of the sect elders!
To put it this way, even the Limitless Sword Sect's Grand Elders treated him with respect when they met him. If you didn't know better, you'd think Wan Jianyi was the Grand Elder!
"As expected of the Limitless Sword Sect, invincibly strong!"
You felt Zhen Pin's gaze when he looked at you had become even more respectful.
"Old bald donkey, this grand event is over, everyone should be dispersing. You're from Xiliang, right?"
"Indeed."
"I've heard you have a lot of cults there?"
"Benefactor should not speak carelessly. It's merely different beliefs; one cannot call those heretics cults."
So there are many.
You can't break through to the Golden Body realm now.
The Ten Thousand Souls Banner said to find an Earth Vein, and you definitely need to look, but you can't pin all your hopes on such a needle-in-a-haystack operation.
Anyway, you're already old in this lifetime. You're prepared to go all out, head to Xiliang where heretical paths are most numerous, and see if there are any unorthodox cultivation methods to break through.
"Old monk, you're definitely more familiar with Xiliang than I am. Could you trouble yourself to guide me?"
"Benefactor speaks too seriously. This humble monk must also return to Xiliang; we can travel together."
Just as martial artists from all corners of the land prepared to disperse and return home.
From the Nine Provinces Cauldron standing not far away came Sword Lord's roaring laughter towards the sky.
"Hahahaha! We prepared this Cauldron Quest Tournament for this thing, busy and bustling for a whole year, only to end up with nothing more than a rather large brick!"
Martial artists from various factions were puzzled and turned back one after another, gathering around the Nine Provinces Cauldron.
Previously, this cauldron had always been protected by a formation, forbidding anyone from approaching.
Now, Sword Lord had shattered the formation with a single sword strike. Everyone could approach, even touch it with their hands.
You went to join the excitement too.
Reached out and touched the Nine Provinces Cauldron.
A cool, metallic sensation, nothing particularly special.
Suddenly, a simple, honest, chubby face flashed before your eyes.
"Da Chun?"
You removed your hand from the cauldron's body. When you touched it again, there was no such strange phenomenon.
"What's going on?"
You looked at the other martial artists who came to touch the Immortal Artifact. They showed no abnormalities, only the novelty of touching a Great Dao Immortal Artifact.
You noticed that those flying martial arts experts stepped forward, touched it, and all revealed deeply disappointed expressions.
"Why is it like this?"
"Where did the Artifact Spirit go?"
"Are Great Dao Immortal Artifacts simply ones without Artifact Spirits?"
"If that's the case, why is it like an inanimate object, completely unable to resonate or give us any feedback?"
Listening to Sword Lord and the other faction leaders converse, you learned what problem the Nine Provinces Cauldron had.
Comparing the Nine Provinces Cauldron to a computer.
The cauldron before you was the hardware.
And the Artifact Spirit was the operating system and software.
Now there was only a pile of hardware; the operating system had vanished without a trace. This thing simply couldn't boot up!
And you couldn't install a system for it either, because this was a Great Dao Immortal Artifact, born of heaven and earth. Humans couldn't even forge it, let alone create an Artifact Spirit for it.
From the Ten Thousand Souls Banner, it wasn't hard for you to understand.
At the Immortal Artifact level, the spirit was more important than the body.
If the body was gone, the spirit could find another vessel to attach to and still exert its power, though the effect would be diminished if it didn't match the original form.
But if the spirit was gone, leaving only the body, it was just an indestructible, inanimate object, unable to perform any function whatsoever.

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