Liam was shocked. This was the Cauldron Ancestor.

The old man usually spoke directly inside his mind, and even then he rarely bothered saying more than a few words. But this time Liam was almost certain the voice had not been meant for him alone.

Alex had heard it. Luna had heard it. More importantly, judging from the sudden change in the Archon's expression, he had heard it too.

Before Liam could even process that, the space directly in front of him twisted. A massive cauldron manifested out of thin air. It wasn't the faint phantom Liam had occasionally sensed before. This time, the cauldron appeared almost completely solid.

It was enormous, easily hundreds of meters tall, its three ancient legs descending toward the ruined battlefield while its massive body covered Liam, Alex, and Luna beneath its shadow.

The surface was dark and weathered, covered in countless scratches and cracks that made it look as though it had survived wars across entire eras. Strange inscriptions covered its surface.

At the same time, the Archon's attack crashed into Luna's barrier.

Karakaboom!

Luna staggered. Immediately, the cauldron rang.

DONG!

The sound wasn't particularly loud. Yet the golden divine energy filling the battlefield suddenly trembled.

The Archon's attack broke apart. One moment, a terrifying wave of divine power was crushing down upon them. The next, cracks appeared throughout it before the entire thing shattered into countless particles of golden light, all flying into the cauldron.

The Archon stared at the cauldron incredulously. "What is that? An artifact with a spirit?"

The Cauldron Ancestor snorted. "Artifact spirit?" The old man sounded offended. "You little brat. Your grandfather was already swallowing heavenly tribulations when your ancestors were still crawling around in the mud."

The Archon's eyes narrowed, but he didn't immediately attack. His divine sense swept toward the cauldron. The instant it touched the ancient vessel, however, his face changed. He pulled his divine sense back so violently that golden blood appeared beneath one of his eyes.

Liam stared. The Archon had been injured simply from examining the cauldron.

The old man chuckled. "Keep poking around. See what happens. And you, brat, what are you looking at? Hurry up and get there already. This insect in front of us is nothing. Since I have decided to help you today, let's go all out."

Liam clenched his fists. Things were completely out of his control. He had no idea what was about to happen. But right now, there was only one thing that he needed to do. He needed to take another step forward. He needed to finish what he started.

Focusing his full attention on the semi-formed soul avatar, he continued to draw in massive amounts of soul energy. His dao cores slowly merged with the soul avatar, and everything became more and more stable.

The crude soul thread running through the center of the avatar stopped trembling. The demonic and vampiric cores continued to resist each other, but the enormous pressure of the surrounding soul energy forced them into an uneasy balance.

Black and crimson energy circulated through the newly formed strands, passing through Liam's own soul energy before returning to the two cores. With every completed cycle, the avatar became a little more solid.

Liam did not dare relax.

He could feel how fragile the entire thing was. One mistake and everything he had built would collapse. Worse, the two Dao cores were already becoming deeply embedded within the avatar. If the structure exploded now, he doubted he would simply lose another attempt.

It could cripple his soul. He pushed the thought aside. There was no turning back anymore. He just needed a little more, and it would become complete.

Liam pushed harder and harder until finally a second soul avatar manifested outside of him. It was a simple transcendent-rank soul avatar, but once it manifested, its rank started skyrocketing instantly.

Going from a newly awakened soul to the Transcendent rank was not a huge deal. For sufficiently talented cultivators with the right resources, that much could be accomplished relatively quickly. Everything after that was different.

Every step beyond the Transcendent rank represented an enormous transformation of the soul. A cultivator could spend tens of thousands of years strengthening their soul only to remain stuck at the same level, while reaching the ranks occupied by the monsters who had fought on this battlefield could easily require hundreds of thousands of years.

Yet Liam's second soul avatar didn't slow down. The moment it stabilized, the remaining soul energy from the demon general and the vampire surged into it.

BOOM!

Its aura jumped. Liam's eyes widened. Before he could even understand what had happened, another wave followed.

BOOM!

The avatar's body became more substantial. The faint black and crimson patterns running through it deepened, while the demonic and vampiric Dao cores embedded within its structure began rotating faster. Then another surge came.

BOOM!

Liam sucked in a breath.

The demon general and the vampire had already spent unimaginable amounts of time developing their souls. Their accumulated soul energy, comprehension, and foundations had not disappeared simply because they died.

And Liam had stolen all of it.

Normally, most of that power would have been useless to him. His Transcendent soul simply couldn't contain it. Trying to force everything inside would have destroyed him long before he could absorb even a fraction of what those two monsters possessed.

But the second avatar had changed the equation.

It had been constructed from them. The strands supporting it had originated from their souls. The Dao cores inside it had been created from the comprehension Liam had stolen from them. Even the soul energy filling its body carried traces of their accumulated foundations.

There was almost no rejection. The avatar devoured everything. Its rank climbed again. And again. And again.

Transcendent.

Dao Lord.

The first major barrier appeared and shattered almost as soon as Liam sensed it.

BOOM!

Dao General.

The avatar's aura erupted again, sending black and crimson waves rolling across the battlefield.

Liam's breathing became heavier.

This was absurd.

He had expected the second avatar to strengthen quickly after its formation, but he hadn't expected anything like this. These weren't minor levels he was crossing. Every single rank represented a qualitative transformation of the soul, something cultivators normally spent thousands or even tens of thousands of years painstakingly accumulating.

Yet his avatar was tearing through them as though they barely existed.

Dao Master.

BOOOOOOM!

The moment it crossed into the Dao Master rank, the avatar underwent another transformation.

The previously translucent body suddenly became almost completely solid. Its features sharpened until it looked nearly identical to Liam, though the black and crimson patterns covering its body made it distinctly different from his first avatar.

The demonic Dao core settled near its abdomen. The vampiric Dao core rested near its chest. Between them ran the crude soul thread Liam had created, carrying an endless circulation of black, crimson, and pale soul energy.

Liam stared at it in disbelief.

Dao Master.

He had just created the damned thing. It hadn't even existed a minute ago, and it was still climbing.

Standing near Liam, the Archon also stared in utter disbelief. What the hell was happening? As a divine archon, he himself was a recently ascended Dao Grand Master, and yet this guy was already a Dao Master?

Then another surge erupted from Liam. The Archon's face stiffened. "No."

The remaining soul energy from the demon general flooded into the avatar.

The demon had been a creature who had lived for an unimaginable amount of time. Every battle, every cultivation session, every soul transformation he had undergone throughout those countless years had contributed to the foundation Liam was now devouring.

The avatar absorbed all of it. Its aura rose.

Dao Master.

Peak Dao Master.

The next barrier appeared. This time it didn't immediately break. Liam finally encountered resistance.

The archon snorted and did not waste any more time. He quickly took out a treasure. It was a small golden disk, no larger than his palm. Countless tiny inscriptions covered its surface, arranged around a single silver crystal embedded in the center.

The Cauldron Ancestor immediately noticed it. "Oh?"

The Archon crushed the crystal.

KACHA!

A blinding silver light erupted. The next second, thousands of attacks burst out from the golden disk.

Swords, spears, arrows, chains, enormous palms, bolts of lightning, and countless other techniques filled the sky. Every single one carried terrifying divine power, and together they formed a dense golden torrent that covered almost the entire battlefield.

However, the Cauldron Ancestor simply laughed. "Brat, do you know who I am? This sort of attack won't even tickle me!"

DONG!

The cauldron rang. An enormous suction erupted. Every attack suddenly changed direction. The golden torrent that had been descending toward Liam twisted violently and rushed toward the mouth of the cauldron instead.

Swords disappeared first, followed by spears, lightning, chains, and enormous divine palms. Thousands of attacks vanished one after another until the sky was completely empty. For the first time, the Archon looked unsettled.

Meanwhile, on the side, another surge of power erupted. The soul avatar had once again broken through.

Dao Grand Master!

BOOOOOOM!

A violent wave of soul pressure swept across the battlefield. The earth cracked beneath Liam's feet, while the remaining corpses and broken weapons around him were blasted away.

The Archon's expression changed again.

Dao Grand Master.

The same rank as him.

He stared at Liam as though he were looking at something that should not exist. Barely a minute ago, this man had possessed nothing more than a Transcendent-rank soul. He had watched the second avatar form with his own eyes, yet in that ridiculously short period of time, it had already crossed Dao Lord, Dao General, Dao Master, and now Dao Grand Master.

But Liam barely noticed the Archon's reaction.

The instant the breakthrough occurred, his perception exploded outward. The world suddenly became terrifyingly clear. He could distinguish individual fragments of consciousness among the countless broken souls scattered across the battlefield. Even the seemingly empty space around him was filled with countless tiny fluctuations that he had never been able to perceive before.

The enormous amount of information he had stolen from the demon general and vampire had previously been an incomprehensible mess. Hundreds of thousands of years of experience had been compressed into a storm that his mind simply couldn't process.

Now the storm began to unravel. Memories flashed through his consciousness. There was far too much to examine now, but Liam could finally access it without feeling as though his soul was about to split apart. His mind, though, was an entirely different matter.

He felt as if he was about to lose it. It was as if his head was on the verge of exploding.

Liam roared as he felt power and madness surge through him.

Seeing this, the Archon no longer hesitated. Complex sigils appeared around him, and spatial fluctuations erupted violently from his body. He was leaving.

"Push through it, brat. Go and kill him. Don't let him leave." The cauldron ancestor roared with laughter.

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