With a thud, the entire bronze hall shook violently.

  Goddamn, that wasn’t an earthquake, right? Ding Ning stared fixedly at the Nine-Dragon Cauldron. He had to think of a way to get it out of here.

  Unfortunately, before he had taken any actual action, the Nine-Dragon Cauldron flew up of its own accord and landed in the hands of a stone statue who had appeared out of nowhere.

  Ding Ning looked at this enormous stone statue with eight feet, three heads, and six arms and swallowed with difficulty. Seeing its bronze heads and iron foreheads, impenetrable body and the knife, ax, and spear it held in its hands, Ding Ning smiled charming and said shyly, “Ancestor Chiyou, I was just making a joke. Haha, just a joke.”


  The Chiyou’s statue in front of him was dozens of meters tall. His eight legs made him as fast as a ghost and his three blurry faces had no expression at all. His six hands held a knife, ax, and spear that were each about nine meters long and infused with a killing aura. All this made Ding Ning feel that they were not of the same level at all. The stone statues from earlier would crumble into dust with one strike from this one.

  Chiyou’s statue stood where it was silently. It seemed to be looking at him but also did not seem to see anything. The pressure of his power was terrifying and it seemed to thicken the air, restricting Ding Ning’s breathing as sweat broke out on his forehead.

  Finally, Chiyou’s statue moved. With a wave of his hand, the mermaid suddenly left Ding Ning’s left arm and flew, without any chance of resistance, to Chiyou’s enormous palm. The mermaid tilted her head and looked at the statue curiously, and bubbles continued to float out of her mouth.

  All of Ding Ning’s muscles tensed and his back was soaked with sweat as he stared fixedly at Chiyou’s statue. Luoxue and the Air Force Wings were inside the mermaid’s space, the statue wouldn’t squish the mermaid, right? If he did, Luoxue and the Air Force Wings would certainly not escape. Thus, even though he knew he was not a match for the statue, he still made ready to attack.

  Fortunately, Chiyou’s statue did not attack the mermaid. Instead, his three mouths opened and closed and he made some dry and strange sounds.

  The mermaid continued to blow out bubbles and seemed to be using a unique language to communicate with Chiyou’s statue.

  Ding Ning’s body froze and surprise appeared in his eyes. This statue could talk, was it not a statue and instead was a totem?

  The Jiuli tribe was split into nine parts and each had a totem belonging to them, thus everyone thought there were nine totems.

  But through Xuan Ji’s messages, he learned that the Jiuli tribe actually had ten totems. The most powerful totem was Chiyou’s battle god totem.

  However, did not know whether Chiyou had created the battle god totem based on his own image or had changed himself based on the image of the battle god. Other than Chiyou himself, no one knew the answer to this mystery.

  Within real recorded history, after the Yan Emperor’s people killed Chiyou, there was again chaos in the world as their political power was unstable. The Yellow Emperor drew Chiyou’s likeness on army flags to intimidate the world.

  Everyone in the world thought Chiyou could not die so no one dared to oppose him. Thus, all the nations swore allegiance to him. From this, it was clear how powerful Chiyou’s battle god’s reputation was.

  As Ding Ning watched, Chiyou’s statue and the mermaid concluded their conversation and the statue stabbed the giant knife in his hand into the ground. Turning its eyes to him, it pointed with a finger and a beam of light shot into the stone man.

  The stone man suddenly gave off red and orange lights that shot directly into Ding Ning’s mind. A gold-foiled paper spun in his mind. There were a few ancient and mysterious characters carved onto it.

  What type of character was this? He had never seen it before. It was not bone script or cuneiform, and in any case, Ding Ning had never seen such characters before. He didn’t even know if they were characters much less be able to decipher it.

  As he raised his head to ask what this was, Ding Ning found that, at some point, the battle god totem had taken the Nine-Dragon Cauldron and disappeared.

  Never mind, he had to get the soul-severing knife first to cut through the demon-sealing chain. Ding Ning walked toward and grasped the hilt with two hands and gave it a tug……

  How awkward, there was no reaction. How heavy was this soul-severing knife? Ding Ning refused to believe this and infused all his strength into his arms. Using all his strength, he called in a low voice, “Rise!”
……

  He still could not lift it.

  Ding Ning blushed. He indeed had the strength of an adolescent warrior of the Wu tribe. He couldn’t even pick up Chiyou’s weapon, how embarrassing.

  Particularly as the mermaid swung her tail, blew bubbles and looked at him curiously with her head tilted as if asking why he was not taking the knife. This made him feel very uncomfortable.

  This shouldn’t be happening. Since the battle god totem had left him the knife, it must think he had enough strength to pick it up. Why could he not move it?

  Ding Ning’s mind spun quickly. Soul-severing knife, soul-severing knife, did it need a soul to pick it up?

  Having thought of this, Ding Ning gave orders to the two-faced buddha. The black-faced buddha suddenly moved and the soul-severing sword shook slightly. With a rasp, it appeared in his hand, without any weight at all.

  Ding Ning let out a breath. It was as he thought. This was a knife controlled by the soul, no wonder it could sever the soul.

  The mermaid blew some bubbles then suddenly opened her mouth wide and swallowed the eighteen stone statue puppets in one go. She swam around Ding Ning with an eager expression, waiting for his praise.

  Ding Ning was overjoyed. Looking at the empty bronze hall, he sighed in approval and gave the mermaid a thumbs-up.

  The mermaid gave a pleased smile and swung her tail before returning to his left arm as a tattoo.

  Ding Ning looked intently around the bronze hall then turned and left resolutely. As he stepped out of the bronze hall, the two bronze doors closed of their own accord.

  Boom!

  As the doors closed, the entire space blurred and there was a sense of weightlessness. Ding Ning’s sight blurred, then he appeared on the deserted island.

  He made it out that he had probably been in the secret space for about three days. Breathing in the slightly damp air brought in by the sea breeze, Ding Ning gauged the time and suddenly had a feeling of having been away for a lifetime.

  “Huff huff!”


  The mermaid happily spat out the ice coffin, Luoxue, and the Air Force Wings.

  Ding Ning took hold of the knife with his soul and shouted, “Cut!”


  The soul-severing knife abruptly came out and it sliced toward the chain with terrifying power. A layer of bright light abruptly shone from the demon-sealing chain. Countless cryptic symbols flashed and shot into the sky.

  There were no metallic sparks flying in all directions, there was only a light thud as the light on the chain faded and it fell from the ice coffin to the ground.

  At the same time, a shadow of the chain abruptly appeared in the flowing light in Ding Ning’s mind and it melded with the demon-sealing chain on the ground.

  Just as Ding Ning thought it was over and was stretching out a hand to grab the chain, the chain suddenly burned with a white flame. Following Ding Ning’s arm, it shot straight into his mind.

  “Ah!” Ding Ning let out a scream.

  In the instant the white fire entered his body, a terrifying sinister coldness made him feel like he had fallen into the depths of hell. It was as if his flesh and blood were freezing over. Although there was clearly black frost on his skin, his heart was like a ball of fire. The mixing of ice and fire, the contradictory pain made him spasm. He fell to the ground and rolled around in pain.

  “Brother, what’s wrong with you?”


  Ding Luoxue cried out in shock. She bent down to help Ding Ning get up but before her hand touched Ding Ning, a sinister chill made her shiver and all the blood in her body froze, freezing her where she stood.

  “Don’t touch me!”


  Ding Ning’s face was black, his eyes were bloodshot, and veins stood out on his forehead. He yelled loudly at Luoxue then gathered his strength and ran toward the sea.

  It was some time after Ding Ning left that Luoxue stood up shakily. Her blood flowed once again and her body temperature gradually rose.

  But her joints were still stiff, her face was as white as paper, and the corners of her lips were slightly dark. She looked in the direction Ding Ning ran in with terror in her eyes and could not stop her tears pouring down her face.

  She had not even touched Ding Ning but yet she had become like this. What kind of pain was Ding Ning suffering? This worried her greatly.

  With a splash, Ding Ning jumped into the sea. Although all the flesh and blood on his body was almost frozen, his internal organs were on fire. His mouth was dry and his mind was muddled, so he unconsciously jumped into the sea.

  What he didn’t know was that the place at which he jumped into the sea immediately froze into a thick layer of ice. This layer of ice was also extending outward. After some more time, who knew if it would freeze the entire surface of the sea.

  Ding Ning continuously sank downward and his consciousness grew more and more blurry. He knew that the two-sided buddha was battling with the white flame.

  Black fire, white fire, and golden Buddha light, the three of them fought happily but caused Ding Ning unimaginable pain. It was even more painful than being refined in the Nine-Dragon Cauldron earlier.

  As he continued to sink, all of the water he passed through froze into transparent ice crystals. Sea creatures that did not have time to move out of the way were frozen within the ice, making it looked like the underwater world at an aquarium.

  What to do? What to do? At this time, Ding Ning was like an ice-man, coldness emanating from every part of his body. He was desperately panicked and his mind was spinning rapidly.

  At this time, the double-sided Buddha had already lost many times to the Fire of the Underworld. If he didn’t think of something quickly, he would die for sure. After all, the double-sided Buddha was his “god”, it represented his will and soul. He could not lose it.

  Suddenly, he remembered what Xuan Ji had said before. Although the Fire of the Underworld tortured her soul constantly, it did do some good for the soul. As long as one could endure it and not die, it could purify one’s soul.

  However, Xuan Ji was a martial artist at the eighth level of the Holy Martial Arts Realm. Her soul was not something his soul could compare to. She could endure it, but could he?

  But at present, he had no way out. If he continued as he was and waited for his strength to run out, he would also die.

  It looked like he had no choice but to throw his all into this. After all, although his soul was not as refined as Xuan Ji’s, the amount of Fire of the Underworld in his body was far less than what had been in Xuan Ji’s. Only a small thread had entered his body.

  He was going to go for it. A ruthless light flashed through Ding Ning’s eyes. With his mind, he stopped the double-sided Buddha from resisting and allowed the Fire of the Underworld to envelop the double-sided Buddha and burn.

  Pain. More pain than even when he was being refined. Ding Ning felt that his head was no longer his own. It felt as if someone had opened his head and lit his brain on fire. He wished he could immediately lose consciousness.

  But he knew he could not lose consciousness. If he did, it was all over for him. He had to stay awake and endure this pain, only then could he survive as well as obtain the most benefit from the experience.

  This little trace of Fire of the Underworld was different from the one in Xuan Ji’s body which had a purpose. This one did not have its own consciousness and had not locked onto Ding Ning’s soul. It would eventually be exhausted one day.

  This was a contest of will and a protracted battle of the soul. It would all depend on whether Ding Ning could last until the end.

  The mermaid blew bubbles anxiously. The sea was her home but the only thing she could do right now was make Ding Ning breathe like he could on land. Otherwise, before Ding Ning had defeated the Fire of the Underworld, he would have drowned.

  Ding Ning allowed the Fire of the Underworld to burn his soul as he chanted Sutra of Cultivating Spirit with complete disregard for everything else. He constantly provided “nourishment” for this soul, otherwise, if he fell behind the rate at which his soul was burning, he would die.

  It had to be said, Ding Ning’s decision to jump into the sea was an intelligent one. With the help of the Tianshui totem, there was no threat of suffocation. Cycling through the Sutra of Cultivating Spirit here in the unpolluted ocean, the speed at which he cultivated his spiritual power was hundreds of times faster compared to being on land.