Cauldron

The scroll was very old and described the thoughts of the writer. He suspected that this was a ruin belonging to a senior called Flame Tribulation as well as the fact that he was trapped for a month in the same cave and wrote the scroll as a final testimony.

The five now walked forward through the corridor. It linked to another larger cavern. The cave walls continued to emit the fire qi and Red's fire seed kept absorbing it constantly. The group of five then entered the second cavern.

"Is this a series of tests? And the Asura had already been here?" Lana wondered. Sakura planet was deep within the human alliance, that an Asura scroll was found here meant they had deeply infiltrated the alliance. This had to be reported to the heads of the alliance.

In the cavern there was a large copper cauldron and nothing else. "That is no ordinary cauldron." One of the four, a man commented. That man's father was an alchemist and thus he was very familiar with cauldrons. "It isn't a pill cauldron. I suppose this is the next test."

Red walked around the cavern but couldn't find anything at all. It was completely barren with the exception of cauldron lying majestically in the middle. The man suddenly said. "There's an inscription on the cauldron, it says that we need to feed the cauldron and it will open up a path."

"What exactly are we supposed to feed it?" Red asked.

"Fire essence." The man said before he took out a small gemstone which shone in bloody scarlet and put it inside the cauldron. The gemstone began bubbling and melting within the confines of the cauldron. It turned into a molten liquid that looked like blood, but you could feel the immense heat that the liquid was generating.

"Fire stone?" Lana asked. "It is indeed a fire stone." The man said. At that moment, the liquid in the cauldron suddenly dried up and crystallized into an amorphous powder.

Red's eyes glowed. That fire stone had level 2 fire essence and the cauldron converted it into level 3 fire essence, though it seemed to use up a lot of level 2 fire essence to create very little level 3 essence

Suddenly the amorphous powder in the cauldron was absorbed by the cauldron and the sound of a gulp was heard from the cauldron. A voice suddenly spoke out. "Aah, that was very good. My thirst was quenched. You fed me grade three fire essence, so I'll allow you to transport three people."

"Who is it? A ghost?" The man yelped in fear. "Ghost my ass! It is I, the divine cauldron you just fed! Quick, tell me the two people you want to take along with you." The cauldron spoke.

"The cauldron is a spirit treasure!" Lana and Red were both shocked. There were many treasures in the world and over time they might even develop their own consciousness if they were powerful enough. Spirit treasures were rare treasures who developed a spiritual consciousness.

The man who had fed the cauldron a fire stone was delighted. He had to choose two others along with him to move to the next test. The man was friendly with the other two men in his group and Lana was the only one who he was not too familiar with. So he chose the other two people.

The cauldron then suddenly glowed and the three people glowed in tandem before they disappeared from the cavern. The three didn't even acknowledge Lana. Red and Lana were the only two left in the cavern.

"Do you have anything like the fire stone?" Red asked.

"No, I do not." Lana shook her head. "Looks like we are stuck here."

Red walked towards the cauldron to talk to the cauldron and as if he were speaking to no one in particular, commented. "This is such an ugly pot. All it does is eat up expensive goods."

The cavern suddenly shook as if it suffered from an earthquake and a voice boomed out. "Human pup, you better take your words back or this divine cauldron will obliterate your ass!"

"Why? Is what I'm saying incorrect?"

"You human pups can sure be naive! To think that you can underestimate myself, the fearsome Divine Cauldron who hung out with Senior Flame Tribulation herself. Didn't you see before? I just raised the grade of flame essence!"

"So that is indeed what you did!" Red said, nodding.

"Ya think?" The cauldron snorted.

"Good. Get to work then." Red suddenly touched the cauldron with a cold smile on his face. His fire seed began rumbling with crazy fanaticism and all the fire essence from the cave walls got sucked into his body . He then guided all the fire essence into the cauldron.

"You!" The cauldron realized it was tricked into bragging about its ability. But before the cauldron could even react an huge boundless amount of flame essence entered it and the cauldron couldn't control itself and began purifying it. "Stop feeding me so much cheap essence!" The cauldron yelled in desperation. But Red paid no heed to the cauldron and kept funneling essence into it.

Slowly level 2 fire essence started forming within the cauldron. A little bit was absorbed by the cauldron but it was son full and couldn't absorb any more.

Red saw the level 2 essence form and began running the second exercise in the Heart of Fire art to absorb the essence while the cauldron was constantly creating more.

The cauldron began crying. "Stop! I can't take the taste of this horrible cheap essence anymore! Stop it! What do you want?"

"Just shut up and do your work." Red said. He had no time for the cauldron's cries. He was constantly funneling level 1 flame essence and also absorbing the level 2 essence.

The level 2 essence was being absorbed by his body's cells. Lana looked at the situation, dumbfounded. This clown kept doing some weird stuff wherever he went.