Refining the Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, the Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar

Stepping past the Ye family's mountain gate, Chu Chen gazed out at the endless expanse of ancient mountains and deep marshes. He exhaled a heavy breath of turbid air, the corners of his mouth curling upward.

Squinting his eyes, he reached out toward the blazing sun suspended high in the nine heavens, grasping at nothing but light.

Warm sunlight bathed the earth, a gentle breeze brushed against his skin, and as he took a deep breath, the air tasted of rich soil and wild flora.

Was this the feeling of freedom?

It felt wonderful!

Stricken from the ancestral registry, personally banished by the Ye family's Ancestor, and condemned before the world by a Sacred Emperor's decree.

This meant that he, Chu Chen, was absolutely severed from the Ye family-his karmic ties severed, his Providence detached, leaving no threads to bind them ever again.

The invisible shackles were shattered. It was as if a crushing boulder had been lifted from his spine. Although his cultivation remained crippled, Chu Chen felt an unprecedented sense of levity and liberation.

"I need to leave this territory quickly and make my way to the Divine Flame Imperial Palace to see Empress Lin Shuwang."

The sacred land governed by Empress Lin Shuwang was known as the Divine Flame Imperial Palace. Although it was also situated within the Desolate Ancient Continent, it was separated from the Ye family by thousands of Li.

If his Saint realm cultivation were still intact, he could simply tear through the void and cross ten thousand Li in the blink of an eye.

But now, the Meridians in his body were pulverized, his cultivation was a wasteland, and not a single drop of True Essence remained. He was, in all respects, a mortal.

Crossing those thousands of Li on foot would easily take him several months.

"A heart guarded against others is essential. I will enter Sky Demon Gorge first."

Leaving the Ye family domain, there were two routes to reach the Divine Flame Imperial Palace.

One was the mortal highway. Though a massive detour, the terrain was flat, with relay stations every ten Li, allowing for safe rest in human cities along the way.

The other was to cut directly through Sky Demon Gorge. It shaved nearly a thousand Li off the journey, but it plunged straight into deep mountains and primordial forests, far from human civilization and deep into the perilous heartland of the Demon Beast race.

Yet, Chu Chen did not hesitate for a fraction of a second. He resolutely marched into Sky Demon Gorge.

Because to him, no Demon Beast in existence was as terrifying as the venomous wolves of the Ye family!!

Furthermore, although Chu Chen could not cultivate, he was not entirely devoid of means to protect himself.

The clay jar his mother had left him was not genuinely a piece of worthless trash.

Its true origins were terrifying enough to completely overturn the Ye family's entire comprehension of reality!

Even when compared to the Ye family's ultimate clan-guarding treasure, the Heaven-Reaching Mirror, this jar could absolutely suppress it.

The moment he stepped into Sky Demon Gorge, ancient trees stretching thousands of Zhang into the sky rose from the earth like pillars of the heavens, choked with dense underbrush and massive, writhing vines.

Even the scorching midday sun could not pierce this suffocating canopy.

"Gurgle gurgle~"

"Hiss hiss hiss~"

"Roar!!"

......

The savage roars of various Demon Beasts echoed in overlapping waves, shaking the entirety of Sky Demon Gorge as the primordial aura of the Desolate Ancient Continent washed over him.

Gripping a razor-sharp longsword, Chu Chen moved with soundless footsteps through the dense forest. He had already retrieved a medicinal powder from his Storage Ring, smearing it over his body to mask his human scent.

Sticking strictly to the outer perimeter of Sky Demon Gorge, he did everything in his power to avoid the territories of high-tier Demon Beasts, making a direct line for a towering mountain peak in the distance.

Fortunately, Chu Chen's luck held out. After trekking along the gorge's periphery for a full half-hour, he only encountered mundane wild beasts, which he easily scattered with a flash of his blade.

Upon reaching the foot of the mountain, he scanned the terrain, located an abandoned cavern, and plunged inside without a second thought.

"Even if Die'er embezzled my Spirit Stones for years, a mere maid shouldn't have possessed this much wealth in her Storage Ring."

"Ye Xuan must have rewarded her handsomely with these resources just to torment me."

After executing the maidservant Die'er, her Storage Ring naturally fell into Chu Chen's hands. In his haste to abandon the Ye estate, he hadn't spared the time to inspect it.

Now, secured within the cavern and temporarily removed from danger, it was time to take stock of his spoils and see what tools he could exploit.

"Excellent. She actually possessed Formation scrolls for concealing auras and defending mountain gates."

The spatial volume inside the Storage Ring was meager, but it was crammed with Spirit Stones and Formation scrolls. Alongside them sat numerous jade bottles brimming with Pills.

Wasting no time, Chu Chen withdrew a Spirit Stone and forcibly drew its Spiritual Qi into his body.

Because his Meridians were utterly shattered, the Spiritual Qi could only remain in his flesh for a mere ten breaths before dissipating back into the world. His body simply could not act as a vessel.

But those ten breaths were precisely enough to activate a Formation scroll.

Expending the Spirit Stone's energy, Chu Chen formed a rapid hand seal, firing a burst of Spiritual Qi directly into the parchment.

In a blinding flash, the Spiritual Qi surged. Both the aura-concealing and gate-defending Formations flared to life, casting a five-pointed starlight array that securely enveloped the entire cavern.

Only after sealing his perimeter did the tension in Chu Chen's chest finally ease.

Moving with absolute efficiency, Chu Chen willed it, and the dilapidated, battered clay jar from the Storage Ring materialized heavily in his palm.

The jar was ancient, thoroughly worn, and completely unremarkable.

Its pitch-black surface was scarred with ancient sword gouges, and a jagged chunk was missing from its rim.

To speak plainly, if this broken jar were tossed into a mortal gutter, no beggar would stoop to pick it up.

Had it not been forged from a material so indestructible that it survived every drop and blow, Die'er would never have bothered storing it in her ring.

Yet, cradling this ruined jar, Chu Chen's breathing grew ragged. His heart hammered against his ribs, and his face flushed red with manic intensity.

No one in this world understood the apocalyptic terror of this broken jar better than Chu Chen. It was an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon, a supreme artifact forged only by a true Great Emperor!

The Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar!!

The only reason it appeared as a piece of mundane trash was because this Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon lay dormant beneath a heaven-defying seal, locked in an eternal slumber.

And the only living soul capable of awakening this Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon was him, Chu Chen.

In his previous life, Chu Chen had never unraveled the mystery of this jar. It wasn't until his dying breath, when Empress Lin Shuwang brought her own Emperor Armament to wage war against the Ye family's Heaven-Reaching Mirror, that the apocalyptic clash of two Extreme Dao Imperial Weapons unleashed an unprecedented Emperor Pressure that threatened to annihilate the entire Ye estate.

Only under that world-ending pressure was the Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar forced into a violent, autonomous awakening to protect its master.

Tragically, Chu Chen's life force had already burned out by then. Even the awakening of an Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon could not pull him back from the abyss.

But in this life...

Without a trace of hesitation, Chu Chen gripped the broken jar in his left hand, raised his longsword with his right, clenched his jaw, and plunged the blade directly toward his own heart.

Shua!

The razor-sharp steel instantly bit through his flesh. Drops of blazing, crimson heart's blood welled up, sliding down the blade to drip heavily onto the broken jar.

"Hiss-"

Chu Chen sucked in a sharp breath of frigid air. The agonizing pain drained the color from his face, his brows knotting tightly together.

Right now, Chu Chen had no way to summon two Extreme Dao Imperial Weapons to clash and bathe this jar in Emperor Pressure.

To awaken this dormant artifact, his only path was to gorge it on his own heart's blood, forcing a bloodline master-recognition.

Only then could he take the first step in refining this Extreme Dao Imperial Weapon.

"I have done all I can... the rest is up to the Heavenly Dao!!"

Gritting his bloodstained teeth, Chu Chen collapsed heavily to the stone floor. The excruciating agony compounded by the severe blood loss dragged him instantly into a dead faint.

Yet the Heaven-Swallowing Magic Jar in his slackened grip continued to greedily drink the hot heart's blood dripping from his open chest.

As the pitch-black clay engorged itself on his lifeforce, eerie pulses of black light began to erupt from its surface. A terrifying, oppressive Emperor Pressure slowly began to unfurl within the sealed cavern...

Meanwhile, back at the Eternal Aristocratic Ye Family.

The clan's Providence, which had previously blazed into the heavens like a beacon of absolute prosperity, had shockingly hemorrhaged more than half its volume mere moments after Chu Chen's departure.

His eldest sister, Ye Lingyue, who had been meditating at the absolute critical juncture of her breakthrough, suddenly violently coughed up a mouthful of black blood. Her breakthrough collapsed.

Staggering out of her secret chamber, Ye Lingyue stared up at the skies above the Ye estate. Her spiritual perception screamed as she witnessed roiling storm clouds and a sickening surge of karmic rot.

Her knees buckled, and she nearly collapsed to the courtyard floor.

"What... what is happening to our Ye family?!"

"Not only has our heaven-defying Providence vanished by half, but why is this suffocating karmic rot breeding so wildly?!"

"Could our Ye family have committed a sin so vile it incurs the wrath of the Heavenly Dao? Impossible!!"

At that exact same moment, deep in Secluded Cultivation, the Ye family Ancestor attempting to assault the Quasi-Emperor realm suddenly began bleeding thick clusters of rotting black mist from his pores.

This black mist was as viscous as pitch.

Clinging to his bones like parasitic maggots.

......