Deep within the Chaos, the environment was completely different from the Primordial World. What met the eyes of the Leader of Tongtian were numerous turbulent currents of Chaos. If one were to be carelessly swept into them, even someone of Tongtian's stature would end up in a sorry and battered state. Lacking any supreme defensive treasures, Tongtian chose to proceed with utmost caution, trying his best to avoid the turbulent Chaos currents.
Tongtian slowly waded through the space between two turbulent currents when suddenly, a gale swept past, causing both currents to surge violently. Before Tongtian could even react, he was swept right in. He only felt a gust of wind, his vision went black, and his mind went completely blank. If it weren't for the fact that the Heavenly Dao could not reach into the Chaos, he would have suspected he was being deliberately targeted for having such abysmal luck.
The gale passed and the turbulent currents subsided once more. By this time, Tongtian had no idea where he had been swept. Emerging disheveled from a spatial rift onto an island in the Chaos, he checked his appearance and could not help shaking his head. If Yuanshi were to see him looking like this, he would undoubtedly start lecturing him again, and if his disciples saw him, he might lose all his dignity completely. With a single shake of his body, all the dust vanished, and he instantly restored his immortal, transcendent demeanor.
Only then did Tongtian begin to survey the island, which met his eyes as an utterly desolate wasteland. As he prepared to get his bearings and continue his journey toward the Chaos Bead, he suddenly took a closer inspection of the barren island. It was too desolate, and he felt something was deeply amiss. Sitting cross-legged, Tongtian began to probe the island inch by inch with his divine sense.
As his divine sense swept across the island over and over again, Tongtian suddenly brandished the Qingping Sword and brought it down in a single slash. Brilliant sword qi surged forth, actually splitting the island wide open. Right at the fracture point, a small cauldron was floating. Utterly unadorned and unpretentious, it sat right there yet seemed to exist in an entirely different world. Tongtian stepped forward and collected it.
Only when he held it in his hand did he realize it was actually the Chaos Cauldron. Everyone knew of Nuwa's Qiankun Cauldron, and this Chaos Cauldron was its primordial counterpart—the very template from which the Qiankun Cauldron had been crafted through creation.
The Chaos Cauldron ranked among the Supreme Treasures of Chaos, standing on the exact same tier as the complete Chaos Bead, the Heaven-Opening Axe, and other such treasures.
This cauldron possessed unfathomable and boundless profundity, containing an entire realm within itself complete with heaven and earth, sun and moon, mountains and rivers, flora and fauna, and all living beings. It could devour all things and transform them into the Qi of Chaos, or nurture all things to create new lives and worlds. It could suppress the Chaos, fend off extraterrestrial heavenly demons and immeasurable kalpas, and could also fracture the Chaos to split open heaven and earth, divide yin and yang, and evolve the cosmos.
The master of the Chaos Cauldron could wield Chaos Power, and its defensive capabilities were second to none in the entire Chaos. However, the Chaos Cauldron was not an invincible treasure; it had its own nemeses and weaknesses. Should it encounter Supreme Treasures of Chaos of the exact same caliber or other profoundly mysterious and powerful entities, the Chaos Cauldron could still sustain damage or be held in check.
One second Tongtian was still complaining about his unfavorable start, and the next he was beaming like a blooming chrysanthemum. He had directly completed half of his task. With the Chaos Cauldron to suppress the Qi fortune of Jiejiao, everything would be foolproof. There would be no meaningless leakage or theft whatsoever. From then on, the Qi fortune of Jiejiao would be as steady as Mount Tai, and Tongtian would no longer need to be permanently stationed on Jinao Island to suppress the sect's Qi fortune with his own presence.
As it turned out, the reason the Leader of Tongtian in his past life rarely left Jinao Island was because Jinao Island was the convergence point of Jiejiao's Qi fortune. Without a supreme treasure to suppress it, the fortune would continuously bleed out and decay, forcing Tongtian to anchor himself at Jinao Island to suppress the Qi fortune and delay the outbreak of the tribulation. Now, with the Chaos Cauldron in hand, that peerless sword immortal who had dared to battle the heavens and fight the earth was back.
Tongtian immediately set about refining it. Supreme Treasures of Chaos were simply extraordinary; while normal Xiantian spiritual treasures could be directly refined the moment one got their hands on them, Tongtian had to perform a preliminary refinement on the cauldron before drawing it into his body to slowly refine it over time.
After trying to get his bearings, Tongtian declared that he was not lacking in a sense of direction; it was simply that everything in this Chaos looked completely identical. Having no other choice, he could only take out the fragment of the Chaos Bead and let it guide him.
The moment the fragment appeared in the outside world, it acted like a cat that had caught the scent of fish, pointing firmly in a single direction. If not for Tongtian holding it back, it would have flown off long ago. Seeing this, Tongtian realized it was the ultimate guide—had he known earlier, why would he have bothered searching on his own? Yet, if he had taken it out sooner, he might have missed out on the Chaos Cauldron entirely. One had to admit that every gain and loss was predestined in due time.
Following the fragment forward felt like having an express pass; there were practically no obstructions along the way, and his speed of advance increased abruptly. Suddenly, the Chaos Bead fragment stopped before a mass of turbulent Chaos currents and hesitated, refusing to move forward. Seeing this, Tongtian knew they had not yet reached the hidden location of the Chaos Bead. But why had the fragment stopped moving? Could there be a treasure here? Tongtian immediately summoned the Four Immortal-Slaying Swords, setting up the Immortal-Slaying Sword Array to shroud the turbulent qi and prevent it from drifting away.
True to its reputation as the number one killing formation in the Primordial World, the Immortal-Slaying Sword Array was praised in verse:
"Neither bronze nor iron nor yet steel,
Beneath Mount Xumi was once concealed.
Without inverting yin and yang to forge its might,
Would Shuihuo fail to quench its razor light?
The Immortal-Slaying slays, the Slaughtering dooms,
The Trapped-Immortal casts red light where ruin looms;
The Destruction-Immortal's shifts defy all thought,
In Daluo Golden Immortal blood their robes are caught."
That mass of qi seemed to sense danger and darted restlessly back and forth within the space of the formation. Channeling the sword array, Tongtian sent streaks of sword qi striking against the qi mass. In no time, the qi mass was worn down to nothing. At its core lay yet another fragment. The fragment in Tongtian's hand immediately flew forward of its own accord, intertwining with the other piece and fusing into a single, larger fragment. Tongtian thought to himself, *So that's how it was.* It had sensed another fragment, but the induction had been faint because the Chaos qi possessed the property of blocking such senses, which was why it had hesitated near the qi mass. This, however, was beneficial to Tongtian; every time the Chaos Bead became more complete, its concealment abilities grew even stronger.
Recalling the Immortal-Slaying Sword Array, Tongtian continued onward under the guidance of the Chaos Bead fragment.
Along the way, Tongtian reaped numerous gains, including ores that had survived the erosion of the Chaos qi—all of them prime materials for weapon forging and forming arrays.
As his speed of advance grew faster and faster, Tongtian knew he was getting closer and closer to the Chaos Bead. Suddenly, a wave of inspiration struck Tongtian; he recalled the fragment and, following his own intuition, veered off in a completely different direction.
After winding along a secluded path, he turned a corner and a lake sprang into view. Upon the surface of the lake, a green lotus was blooming. A Chaos Green Lotus? Wasn't it shattered? Looking closely, Tongtian saw that it possessed only twelve petals—it was a twelfth-grade Chaos Green Lotus.
It turned out that the thirty-sixth-grade Chaos Green Lotus had possessed five lotus seeds. Four of them had fallen into the Primordial World, while the remaining one had taken root in the Chaos, nurturing this twelfth-grade Chaos Green Lotus. Overjoyed, Tongtian remembered that Father God Pangu had been nurtured within the thirty-sixth-grade Chaos Green Lotus. Now, he too had encountered this great opportunity.
There was still a long time before this green lotus would fully mature and bloom, but with Tongtian's arrival, the speed at which it absorbed the spiritual Qi of Chaos abruptly accelerated. The flower bud grew lush and dripping with green vitality, giving the impression it would burst into bloom the very next second. Hesitating no longer, Tongtian flew forward and plunged straight into the flower bud.
The moment he entered the bud, Tongtian felt as though he had returned to the embrace of a mother—warm and comforting. Closing his eyes, Tongtian drifted off into a deep slumber.