Its mysterious nature did not mean the thing itself was especially strange.

Lu Yuan remembered that there had been records of it in history.

After King Zhaoxiang of Qin wiped out the remnants of the Eastern Zhou, he ordered one of his generals to bring back the Nine Cauldrons.

Yet on the way, one of them—the Yuzhou Cauldron—fell into the Si River.

Later, people were sent to dredge it up many times, but nothing was ever found.

According to legend, that incident was seen as an omen. Though Qin would go on to unify the world, the Qin Dynasty would only be temporary. It would not last for long.

In the end, it would be brought to an end by a man of the Si River.

And in the later course of history, the Qin Dynasty did indeed perish after only two generations.

The one who replaced it was none other than Liu Bang, the pavilion chief of Sishui [1].

There were also legends claiming that Liu Bang was the son of the Red Emperor, destined to unify the world.

Of course, whether these accounts belonged to official history or merely folklore was now impossible to distinguish.

Still, when considered alongside the circumstances of the new era, as well as some of the information Lu Yuan possessed, certain things were clearly not as simple as they appeared on the surface.

For the time being, however, that had little to do with him.

Once he found the Yuzhou Cauldron, it meant Lu Yuan now possessed three of the Nine Cauldrons.

The Providence within the Celestial Emperor's Ancient Token and the Investiture Edict would be strengthened yet again.

The Celestial Court's overall strength would likewise rise because of it.

Thus, he brought the Yuzhou Cauldron straight back to Mount Tai.

At the same time, he ordered all the beast kings to return. There was no need for them to continue searching for the Nine Cauldrons.

Lu Yuan understood very clearly that not all of the Nine Cauldrons were on Earth. Now that he had obtained three, the remaining six would likely be extremely difficult to find.

And at present, waves upon waves of beings from the Outer Cosmos were continuously descending, and none of them were weak.

The beast kings were an extremely important fighting force. They absolutely could not be squandered lightly. He wanted even less for them to suffer losses because of the search for the Nine Cauldrons.

Naturally, the Peacock King and the others had no objections to Lu Yuan's orders.

The group decided to return to Mount Tai and continue cultivating and evolving, striving to go even further.

After all, with the Nine Cauldrons returning to their places and Providence growing stronger, they too would benefit.

After returning to Mount Tai, Lu Yuan wasted no time and immediately began refining the Yuzhou Cauldron.

The process was no different from the previous two cauldrons.

With Providence empowering it, the aura emanating from the cauldron grew even heavier.

Yet his name alone still showed no change whatsoever.

That left Lu Yuan rather helpless. He wanted to understand the reason, yet had no way to investigate it.

Since that was the case, he simply stopped dwelling on it and continued accumulating strength while developing the Celestial Court together with Elder Ji and the others.

During that time, he also inscribed several new names on the Investiture Edict.

As time passed, the Celestial Court's strength grew greater and greater. It had already truly gained the ability to control every region of the five supercities.

At the same time, under Lu Yuan's arrangements, he continued receiving intelligence from all over the world.

The descent of beings from the Outer Cosmos was extremely secretive, but traces of it were still detected.

Their numbers were great. They emerged from famous mountains and great rivers across the land, then quickly concealed themselves. Because preparations had long been made beforehand, their movements were extremely well hidden.

On the surface, the state of the world seemed to have changed very little. But in truth, more and more people from the various starfields had already descended, gradually forming different factions.

For example, the Yin Sparrow Race, the Three-Headed Ghost Race, the Nether Bull Clan, and so on. And these were only the ones that had already been discovered.

As for those that had yet to reveal themselves, there would only be more.

By rough estimates, the number of beings from the Outer Cosmos that had now descended upon Earth had already exceeded one hundred thousand.

It sounded like an enormous number. But given the current scale of the world, it was not all that astonishing.

Even so, it still meant that the situation was becoming more and more severe.

Lu Yuan understood that very well. Fortunately, every preparation was advancing steadily.

Day after day, time continued to pass.

Within the Celestial Court, many people were breaking through one realm after another, their strength clearly rising.

Zhu Qingyu, Ice Fairy, and Chunyang were among them. Their progress was all remarkably obvious. Even without the Celestial Court's Providence supporting them, they could still reach such a level. That was no easy feat.

It also proved that Lu Yuan's choices back then had been correct. Nurturing these people would surely become an enormous source of support in the future.

One day, as usual, Lu Yuan was in seclusion, cultivating.

A powerful aura continuously spread from within his body. Threads of golden vital qi rippled in all directions, making him look like a true god.

My accumulation in the Lesser Sage Realm is already close to its limit. If I want to continue increasing my strength, I can only take another step forward.

Sensing the changes within himself, Lu Yuan could not help but let out a soft sigh. He understood his own situation very clearly.

But the problem was this—how long had it been since he stepped into the Void Sage Realm?

For an ordinary person, it would likely take decades, or even a hundred years, before they had any chance of advancing further.

Even with outstanding Talent, Even with the Ancestral Bloodline he already possessed, cultivation still required time.

The path of evolution had never been something that could be completed in a single bound just like how Rome was not built in one day.

Just as Lu Yuan was sighing inwardly, he suddenly raised his head.

A faint smile then appeared on his face. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

"She's out of seclusion?"

Lu Yuan muttered softly to himself.

Then he rose to his feet and walked out of the room.

After waiting for so long, quite a few questions had piled up in his heart. Now, at last, he could get some answers.

The moment Lu Yuan stepped out into the courtyard, a figure in white was already standing there.

She was tall and slender, her bearing ethereal as she stood quietly as though detached from the mortal world.

"Congratulations. You're back into the Sage Realm." Lu Yuan walked forward with a smile on his face.

"So impatient to come see me?" Jiang Ningxian smiled lightly, her two dimples appearing at the corners of her lips. "It seems King Lu truly has quite a few questions he wants to ask."

Her temperament was transcendent and otherworldly. Coupled with that calm, serene disposition tinged with a hint of playfulness, this Saintess of the Jiang lineage seemed especially distinctive.

And now, with Earth's restrictions gradually weakening, she had smoothly stepped into the Sage Realm as well.

Lu Yuan had actually expected that long ago. So he was not particularly surprised.

"Of course." He looked at her and made a gesture of invitation.

Jiang Ningxian did not stand on ceremony. She walked straight into the courtyard and sat down before saying, "Go on, then. What do you want to know?"

"Not that much, actually." Lu Yuan's tone was calm. "While you were in seclusion, I found the second of the Nine Cauldrons in the Hengduan Mountains. At the time, I also encountered some people calling themselves the Spirit Clan."

"The Spirit Clan?"

Jiang Ningxian froze slightly. Then she sized Lu Yuan up from head to toe and could not help but say, "Don't tell me you killed all of them."

Lu Yuan nodded and did not deny it. He then briefly recounted what had happened.

Jiang Ningxian curled her lip, seeming to hold that race in considerable disdain.

"The Spirit Clan rely on a few innate divine abilities to run rampant through the depths of the cosmos, and they've even destroyed several ancient life-bearing stars. Their reputation has always been terrible.

"It's good that you killed them. Let them learn what it means to kick an iron plate."

"Run rampant?" Lu Yuan could not help but sneer.

"There are countless races in the starry sky, and no shortage of powerful beings. The Spirit Clan doesn't seem to rank among the very strongest. If they act like this, aren't they afraid of provoking the dissatisfaction of the races and clans from other starfields—or even a joint campaign against them?"

In his view, although the Spirit Clan ranked among the top hundred starfields, when it came down to it, they were roughly on the same level as forces like the Yin Sparrow Race or the Celestials.

With that sort of strength and foundation, wanting to rampage through the cosmos was obviously unrealistic.

"Things like that have indeed happened before," Jiang Ningxian said with a smile. "But in the end, they all amounted to nothing. That's because they have a backer behind them. And that backer is someone even my Jiang Clan is deeply wary of."

"Could it be... the Eternal Clan, the Eternals?"

Something suddenly came to mind and Lu Yuan spoke again.

"By the way, do you know anything about Eternal Divine Gold?"

1. Sishui literally means Si River water. ☜