“I stuffed you inside the body of that big ginseng. I’m talking about that ginseng spirit I was dragging along earlier,” Venerable White explained.

“…” Demon Venerable Lushan Street was speechless. Was Senior White talking about—that—pitiful ginseng? Now, he was unexpectedly inside its body? How did it even happen?

“Anyway, are you willing to reply to my question now? Where is the core of this fragment of the Heavenly City? Earlier, I looked all around and searched several places that looked important, but I still couldn’t find the core,” Venerable White said.

“I absolutely won’t reply to your questions,” Demon Venerable Lushan Street said coldly. Even if I don’t reply, what can you do to me?

Venerable White didn’t get angry, but laughed instead. “Do you want to continue living? The reason we cultivators go through the trouble of practicing day and night and bear the suffering of the heavenly tribulation… isn’t it all to achieve immortality? Especially someone like you, who has experienced firsthand what death looks like… don’t you want to continue living more than anything else?”

“…” Demon Venerable Lushan Street.

This question really hit the nail on the head. Did he want to continue living?

Of course he wanted!

Every cultivator that didn’t have a screw loose would want to keep living!

However… there were several types of ‘continue living’.

For example, obtaining a few additional years of life—or a decade—and then dying also fell under ‘continue living’.

Becoming something akin to a living corpse and keep living on dishonorably also fell under ‘continue living’.

Having one’s soul refined and turned into a wicked magical treasure also fell under ‘continue living’.

Lushan Street didn’t want any of these.

“I want to continue living.” Demon Venerable Lushan Street clenched his teeth, and said, “But—”

Before Demon Venerable Lushan Street could finish speaking, Venerable White had already taken a small teapot out of his pocket.

It was a palm-sized teapot made of gold, and the style was closer to Western ones rather than anything oriental.

“I was waiting for you to say this sentence!” Venerable White said happily.

“???” Demon Venerable Lushan Street was confused. At the same time, he felt his ginseng root stiffening. It was the same as the hair of a human standing on end… it meant that something bad was about to happen!

However, Venerable White made his move at lightning speed. He stretched out his hand and grabbed that ‘tail’ hanging from the mouth of the ginseng spirit, pulling it out! Just in this fashion, the small tail and the spirit-binding ice bead attached to it were pulled out of the body of the ginseng.

“Ugh~” Demon Venerable Lushan Street called out in grief. Soon after, his consciousness blacked out.

When the spirit-binding ice bead was pulled out, Demon Venerable Lushan Street lost control over the body of the ginseng spirit and his consciousness returned back into the small ice bead.

Venerable White happily opened the small teapot and stuffed the spirit-binding ice bead into it, covering the teapot with the lid immediately after.

“Ding~”

A large number of runes that were engraved on the mysterious little teapot and its lid suddenly lit up. Soon after, the lid fused with the body of the teapot, becoming one with it.

“Contract established.” A very simple message was issued from the mysterious teapot. The language the teapot used to issue the notification wasn’t Mandarin. However, there was gentle mental energy concealed within the sound that translated the message for all those hearing it. As such, Song Shuhang and Su Clan’s Sixteen were able to understand the meaning of the words even though they had no idea to which country that language belonged.

Contract established? Does that mean that Senior White went through all this trouble because he wanted to establish a contract between this small teapot and the soul of that Seventh Stage Venerable of the Limitless Demon Sect?

Song Shuhang suspected that that other Venerable trapped inside the body of the ginseng had fulfilled the conditions of the contract when he said out loud the words ‘I want to continue living’.

From the looks of it, it was a magical treasure similar to the one the Golden Horned King from Journey to the West possessed… if one replied according to a certain pattern, they would be sucked inside the gourd—or teapot, in this case.

Just what kind of treasure was this small teapot?

❄️❄️❄️

“Ahaha, after so many years, I’ve finally found for you a soul of the Seventh Stage rank or above to act as the teapot spirit. Are you satisfied?” Venerable White said with a smile while holding the small teapot.

“Buzz, buzz, buzz~” The small teapot issued a happy cry. The teapot itself was unable to speak. That ‘contract established’ sentence from earlier was probably part of a pre-prepared set of lines that would be automatically played when certain conditions were fulfilled, and it wasn’t the teapot speaking.

“It was a success,” Venerable White said, very satisfied.

But right at this time, that pitiful ginseng regained consciousness again. It slowly opened its eyes and was really scared. Earlier, it had a nightmare where it had lost control over its body, and even its soul had been suppressed by some external force.

It was unable to control its body according to its will, and it couldn’t even open its mouth to send out its voice. Its soul had been banished to one corner of its body, capable only of helplessly mourning.

Luckily, it was nothing but a dream. When it opened its eyes just now, it could control its body just fine, and there was no scary external force vying against it for the control of its body.

It was great that it was nothing but a nightmare!

Right, the fact that it had been kidnapped by that pretty and delicate celestial being… was that also part of the nightmare?

The ginseng expectantly looked all around after opening its eyes.

In the next moment, it saw that Venerable White was standing next to it while holding a strange teapot in his hand, looking very happy.

Shiet, it wasn’t a nightmare!

It had been really kidnapped by that delicate and pretty cultivator!

Sometimes, reality was even worse than nightmares.

Thereupon, the big ginseng instinctively started to struggle again. “Sob, sob, sob~”

“Eh? How come it woke up again?” After noticing the struggle of the ginseng, Venerable White turned his head around and looked at it, saying in a soft voice, “From the looks of it, it woke again since its soul was stimulated…”

After saying this much, Venerable White turned his body around and gave the ginseng another beautiful roundhouse kick.

“Bang~” The big ginseng blacked out again, losing consciousness.

This time, Venerable White used a little more strength while kicking.

Therefore, the big ginseng might stay asleep for a little longer this time around.

The nearby monster willow quietly swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Luckily, she could supply tree branches to Venerable White and was useful to him—she was nothing like that pitiful ginseng!

❄️❄️❄️

Song Shuhang and Su Clan’s Sixteen curiously gazed at the small teapot in Senior White’s hands.

Venerable White shook the teapot, and said, “You want to know how this teapot works, right?”

Song Shuhang and Su Clan’s Sixteen repeatedly nodded their heads.

“Actually, this thing isn’t a magical treasure that we cultivators created. It’s something that I picked up in the middle of a desert while I was roaming the world several hundred years ago, and I’m also unsure which system’s practitioners forged this marvelous treasure. Anyway, the small teapot has the capacity to house a soul that can then act as the ‘teapot spirit’. However, the soul of a cultivator of the Fifth Stage or above is required to become the teapot spirit. Additionally, this soul must ‘willingly’ complete the contract before getting inside the teapot, becoming its spirit,” Venerable White said.

“And what is its ability?” Song Shuhang asked.

“Look carefully.” Venerable White stretched out his hand and rubbed the small teapot a few times.

“Whoosh~”

A mass of mist came out of the teapot’s spout.

Next, the mass of mist assumed the appearance of a black-robed cultivator—it was Demon Venerable Lushan Street’s appearance.

“A magic lamp?!” Song Shuhang eyes immediately lit up. “Senior White, can it grant wishes as well?”

“Grant wishes? How can there be something as exaggerated as that in this world?” Venerable White waved his hand, and said, “This magical treasure is actually a battle-type magical treasure. One can summon the teapot spirit three times per day for half an hour and have it fight for them. However, one has to be careful. If the teapot spirit dies, it will truly disappear. Therefore, whenever it gets seriously injured, one has to call it back inside the teapot to convalesce from its wounds.”

“…” Song Shuhang said, “But Senior White, didn’t you say that you wanted to obtain the information related to the core of this fragment of the Heavenly City from that guy? Can he still reply to your questions after becoming the teapot spirit?”

“That’s a given. Otherwise, why would I go through all this trouble to turn him into the teapot spirit?” Venerable White laughed. Then, he tapped on the small teapot and asked the black-robed daoist priest in the sky, “What’s your name?”

“This poor daoist’s dao name is ‘Lushan Street’,” the black-robed daoist priest replied truthfully.

It could reply for real!

“That’s truly incredible…” Song Shuhang said. At the same time, he rejoiced that his dao name didn’t end up being [Daoist Priest China, Zhejiang Province, Wenzhou City, Baijing Street]. Otherwise, how would he even find the courage to reply if someone asked him for his dao name?

Then, Song Shuhang asked out of curiosity, “Fellow Daoist Lushan Street, may I ask you a question? What is your mother’s surname?”

Demon Venerable Lushan Street coldly looked at Song Shuhang and didn’t reply.

“…” Song Shuhang.

Well, that was awkward.

Venerable White comforted Song Shuhang, “Shuhang, don’t take it to heart. The truth is that it will reply only to the questions of the owner of the teapot, and it is by no means looking down on you.”

Senior White, don’t say it out loud! As soon as you mentioned this matter, I immediately felt that the teapot spirit was deeply looking down on me!

Su Clan’s Sixteen couldn’t help but laugh.

“Cough.” Venerable White cleared his throat, and said, “Fellow Daoist Lushan Street, can you fill me in on this matter related to the ‘core’ of this fragment of the Heavenly City?”

Demon Venerable Lushan Street froze for a moment, and a conflicted expression appeared on his cold face.

“His will is truly strong, and it can actually revolt even after becoming the teapot spirit of the teapot.” Venerable White stretched out his hand and gently rubbed the small teapot one more time.

Demon Venerable Lushan Street finally opened his mouth, and said, “The core of this fragment of the Heavenly City is hidden in one of the palaces in the western side. But if you want to get to the place where the core is… you’ll need my help. I’ve already gained some authority over the core of this fragment of the Heavenly City.”

“No wonder… it seems that the core was hidden all along because someone got to it before us. Now I understand why I didn’t find anything even after searching for so long,” Venerable White said.

He hadn’t expected that Demon Venerable Lushan Street had already gained some control over the core of this place. If this guy had been given a little more time—and had managed to make this fragment of the Heavenly City his own—he would have certainly advanced to the Eighth Stage Profound Sage Realm.

But, unfortunately for Demon Venerable Lushan Street, there were no “ifs” or “buts” in this world, and he ended up becoming the teapot spirit of Venerable White’s mysterious teapot before he could advance to the Eighth Stage Profound Sage Realm.

“In that case, show us the way, Fellow Daoist,” Venerable White said.

In the sky, a conflicted expression appeared on Demon Venerable Lushan Street’s face again. But, after a short time, his will was unable to overcome the contract of the small teapot and was defeated.

Thereupon, he took the lead and showed the way to Venerable White and the others, heading toward the palaces located in the western side of this fragment of the Heavenly City.