Zhi Xuan knew he had no other choice. He had to force this beast out of a long-range confrontation and compel it to close the distance, right into the crater. The only thing that could capture the attention of this Verdant Titan more than Soul Fire or arrogance was a pure challenge from another Verdant Titan.

  With a cold resolution formed from sharp thinking amidst the crisis, Zhi Xuan raised the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron high. The Four Seasons light within the Cauldron spun wildly, and instead of pulling it back, Zhi Xuan did something utterly impulsive and mad. He released his grip.

  WHUSHH!

  The Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron, a priceless artifact and the only safe haven for Xiao Die’s cocoon, shot into the air, driven by Zhi Xuan’s spiritual will. The ancient bronze cauldron spun, radiating the purest and most challenging Verdant Titan resonance. The cauldron was not thrown at the Scorpion; it was thrown above the crater, hovering in the air, daring the Giant Earth Scorpion to take it.

  KREE-KREEE!

  The Giant Earth Scorpion’s reaction was instantaneous. It completely ignored the destruction it had wrought. Its thousands of tiny eyes focused on the floating Cauldron—the artifact housing an evolving Verdant Titan. This territorial challenge and the promise of nourishment were too great. Primal rage overrode its intellect. The scorpion spun, ignoring the ruins and the remnants of the boulders. With a roar filled with lust and greed, it lunged forward. Its movements were no longer slow; it was a massive leap from the Desert Emperor aiming for its territorial treasure.

  "Right then, you fool," Zhi Xuan hissed, blood flowing from his lips, but his cold smile returned. He immediately used the opportunity to leap from the rubble, moving to the edge of the crater.

  The Giant Earth Scorpion leapt to the edge of the crater and swung its massive pincers toward the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron. Those pincers, as hard as ancient steel, were meant to clutch and crush the artifact, seizing its contents. However, the Divine Cauldron was no easy prey. As soon as the Scorpion’s pincers touched it, the hidden Four Seasons runes exploded.

  BLARR!

  A steady yet powerful wave of Four Seasons energy repelled the attack. The Giant Earth Scorpion was taken aback. Its thick pincers were knocked back, and the counterattack from the Cauldron, while not damaging its shell, managed to confuse it and push it one step closer to the crater.

  From within the Divine Cauldron, Xiao Die’s cocoon emerged with a powerfully pulsing aura. Zhi Xuan, standing above the crater, pulled back the Divine Cauldron, releasing Xiao Die in mid-air. The cocoon did not hesitate, sensing the potent aura of a Verdant Titan as prime nourishment for its birth.

  SSHHH! SSHHH! WHISS!

  Golden silks immediately extended from the cocoon, attempting to strike directly and pierce the vital life points of the Giant Earth Scorpion. However, a battle of Verdant Titans was not like the battles of Azure Kings who relied solely on lust; the Giant Earth Scorpion, sensing the threat, leapt back and spun its body in an instant to evade the silk.

  Above the canyon gap now blocked by stone debris, the battle between two Verdant Titan entities was immediately etched into the Laws of the Desert. On one side was the Giant Earth Scorpion, a cruel manifestation of Earth and Poison Laws, its shell as hard as a mountain, its tail as fast as lightning. On the other side, floating with a threatening elegance, was Xiao Die’s cocoon, draped in golden silk and a Four Seasons resonance foreign to the desert—a threat full of the promise of nourishment.

  KREE-KREEE!

  The Giant Earth Scorpion, shocked by the Divine Cauldron’s defense and the piercing golden silk attacks, no longer saw Xiao Die as easy prey; she was a territorial rival that had to be annihilated immediately. It ignored Zhi Xuan at the crater’s edge, its focus entirely on the golden cocoon hovering in the air.

  The giant scorpion hissed in anger. It slammed its six thick legs into the ground, triggering deep Earth Laws. The sand around its feet immediately hardened and rose, forming Eight Poisonous Stone Pillars that shot into the air, aiming to pierce and crush Xiao Die’s cocoon, which lacked high evasive capabilities. The pillars radiated a corrupt greenish-black aura.

  SSSHHH!

  Xiao Die’s cocoon, driven by primal instinct, did not retreat. The golden silks extending from the cocoon spun wildly, forming a thick Curtain of Pure Silk. That silk, forged from incredibly pure spiritual essence, served not only as an attack but also as a defense.

  CRACK! CRASH!

  The poisonous stone pillars slammed into the Silk Curtain. The poison immediately tried to seep into the silk, but the Curtain of Pure Silk retaliated with a cold Four Seasons resonance. The silk did not break; instead, the poisonous stone pillars began to freeze and crack under a cold power that surpassed desert attributes. The attack failed, and Xiao Die’s Silk Curtain remained untouched.

  The Giant Earth Scorpion, seeing its attack rendered useless, grew even more enraged. It was the Desert Emperor; its Earth attacks should have crushed such a weak spiritual entity. It gathered all its Poison essence, allowing it to flow into its tail. The spear-shaped tail glowed with a thick poison light, a declaration of a lethal strike.

  WHUUSHH!

  The giant tail whipped forward, not in a stabbing motion, but in a swift horizontal sweep, aiming to cleave the cocoon from the air. The sweep triggered a Poison shockwave that shattered the surrounding canyon rocks.

  Xiao Die’s cocoon could not evade. Its golden silks were immediately retracted, and the cocoon allowed the attack to hit it directly. This was a battle of courage and foundation. The shell of the cocoon, now pulsing with the rhythm of the Four Seasons, absorbed the impact of the Poison-Earth attack directly.

  BOOM!

  A wave of Poison exploded around the cocoon. Its shell vibrated violently, yet it did not crack. Instead, from the point of impact, the Poison essence began to be drawn in. The golden silks immediately shot out again, piercing the air, but this time, they plunged into the Giant Earth Scorpion’s tail.

  KREE-KREEE!

  The scorpion’s roar turned into a painful spiritual shriek. The golden silk, acting as a conduit, began to absorb the Poison essence from the scorpion’s tail, purifying it and channeling it into the cocoon. Xiao Die was not just enduring the attack; she was transforming the strike into nourishment for her birth.

  The opportunity was not ignored by Zhi Xuan. He cast his cauldron and made the Divine Cauldron expand, channeling his essence to exert an oppressive control of the Four Seasons Laws. With a sharp strike from Zhi Xuan and the scorpion’s distraction as it focused on freeing itself from the golden silk, the Divine Cauldron came down with brutal weight.

  DING! DING! DING! DUG!

  The weight of the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron, magnified by Zhi Xuan’s Consciousness Transformation essence, struck the Giant Earth Scorpion’s shell with the sound of metal clashing against ancient stone. Even though the scorpion’s shell was as hard as divine stone, the strike from the ancient artifact radiating foreign Four Seasons resonance felt like a heavenly hammer.

  The giant scorpion roared in pain and shock. Its massive body, driven by the brutal force of the Cauldron, lost its footing. Its six legs slipped at the edge of the crater, and its massive weight immediately sent it falling into the darkness of the crater hole Zhi Xuan had prepared.

  GRRRUUUUUM!

  The sound of the shell grinding against the crater walls, followed by a heavy thud at the bottom of the pit, shook the entire canyon. The poison mist in the air was immediately sucked downward, following its master. Zhi Xuan did not waste a fraction of a second. He leapt forward, landing at the edge of the crater. He ignored the blood creeping from the corner of his lips, his focus now solely on the final battle. He recalled the Divine Cauldron, which now returned to its normal size, letting it hover beside him.

  The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

  At the bottom of the shadow-veiled crater, the Giant Earth Scorpion, that Desert Emperor, moved wildly, trying to climb back up. Its thick shell now showed deep gashes where the Divine Cauldron had struck it, and from there, corrupt Earth essence began to leak. The pain and shock of the fall had stripped away its arrogance.

  KREE-KREEE!

  Its roar turned into a cry of desperation and rage. It moved its tail, trying to pierce the crater walls to climb, but the Golden Silk from Xiao Die’s cocoon now wrapped around its tail, locking it down and continuing to siphon its poison essence. The giant scorpion was not just wounded; it was being drained by a clever territorial rival.

  "Master," that soft voice brushed against Zhi Xuan’s hearing. The hum felt familiar, like the soft hum of a rainbow but now much clearer. "Please, Xiao Die needs Master’s cauldron to confine Xiao Die together with this Scorpion."

  Zhi Xuan startled, his eyes widening slightly before he turned toward the cocoon pulsing in the air. "Xiao Die... You... You can speak?"

  The soft, rapid hum sounded again, filling Zhi Xuan’s Sea of Consciousness with pleading clarity. "Yes, Master. The Thousand Feather Moth realm... makes it possible. Its shell is strong, but its aura is too wild. Xiao Die needs an isolated place to fully absorb this Verdant Titan’s essence. Master’s Cauldron... it is a small world, a perfect place."

  The spiritual Zhi Xuan immediately understood. Xiao Die’s cocoon had now reached a stage where she could communicate spiritually and activate her primal instincts. She did not just want to kill the Giant Earth Scorpion; she wanted to drain it in a controlled manner to ensure her evolutionary transition was perfect. And to drain a Verdant Titan, she needed a vessel capable of containing a massive spiritual alchemical process—namely, the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron.

  "Very well, Little Moth," Zhi Xuan replied, his voice carrying a cold promise. "You shall have your vessel. Ensure the nourishment is worth the danger I just faced."

  Without delay, Zhi Xuan funneled his remaining spiritual essence into the Divine Cauldron. The ancient artifact immediately spun in the air, radiating a calmer and deeper Four Seasons resonance, transforming like a massive overturned basin—the divine cauldron descended with a heavy whir like a falling meteor.

  DING! DING! DING! DING! WHUMP!

  The cauldron hit the ground smoothly, the vibration making the surrounding earth ripple and dust fly, completely confining Xiao Die with the scorpion. Zhi Xuan, unprepared or not expecting such a powerful ground vibration, staggered back and fell from the crater in an undignified manner, submerged in the stinging desert sand.

  COUGH! COUGH!

  Zhi Xuan coughed as sand covered his face. He immediately rose from the sand and wiped his face roughly; the sand felt like sharp pebbles, making him look disheveled and truly like a lost wanderer. Straightening his robe, he sneezed from his nose.

  HACHIM!

  Zhi Xuan rubbed his itchy nose with the back of a hand now covered in sand. The cold arrogance that usually enveloped him was slightly torn by that embarrassing moment—falling off the crater cliff by the vibration of his own Divine Cauldron.

  Ruo Xianxue, now sitting cross-legged near the Ancient Devil Monument in Zhi Xuan’s Sea of Consciousness, simply shook her head. "Nice joke, Monkey. Fighting against a Desert Emperor, only to fall at the edge of the crater. I suspect you are the reincarnation of a one-eyed goat from your mortal village."

  Zhi Xuan paid no mind to Ruo Xianxue’s mockery. He cleaned his tattered grey robe, which was now full of sand, recovering his cold, arrogant posture. Despite the embarrassing fall, his primary goal had been achieved: the Giant Earth Scorpion and Xiao Die’s cocoon were now locked together inside the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron.

  He stepped back to the edge of the crater, staring at the ancient bronze Cauldron overturned at the bottom of the pit. The surface of the Cauldron did not emit a strong light, but there were deep essence fluctuations—the Four Seasons resonance competing with the roars of Earth and Poison being forcibly withdrawn. It was spiritual alchemy on a Verdant Titan scale.

  The battle inside had only just begun.

  Zhi Xuan took a long breath, inhaling air that now felt clean of the poison mist. He felt deep spiritual exhaustion from activating the Triple-Layered defense and controlling the weight of the Divine Cauldron. However, the pain caused by the boulders had now almost completely vanished.

  Zhi Xuan sat cross-legged at the edge of the crater, his body wrapped in his tattered grey robe now looking like a statue carved from desert stone. He funneled his divine sense into the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron. Beneath the massive bronze cover, a spiritual drama was unfolding.

  "By nightfall, it will be finished properly," Zhi Xuan murmured. He could see the Giant Earth Scorpion being suppressed by the Four Seasons Laws and simultaneously absorbed by Xiao Die’s cocoon. "Eat your fill, Xiao Die."

  The Giant Earth Scorpion, a Verdant Titan drenched in Earth and Poison essence, was now kneeling, suppressed by the foreign and cruel Four Seasons Laws. The life-giving resonance of spring, the scorching summer, the withering autumn, and the freezing winter all spun in an inescapable circle.

  These conflicting laws created massive spiritual torment, pressing down on the scorpion's shell and forcing its essence out. Xiao Die’s cocoon floated in the midst of that torment, entirely untouched. Her fine golden silks had turned into greedy roots, piercing through the gashes in the giant scorpion’s shell, siphoning its life, Earth, and Poison essence.

  The alchemical process inside the Cauldron was brutal and perfect. The absorbed Verdant Titan essence was immediately broken down, purified, and funneled into the Cocoon, accelerating its evolution. Zhi Xuan watched this process with a cold, undisturbed gaze. He felt no pity; only pragmatic satisfaction. This was part of the Law of Nature: the strong devour the weak.

  At the edge of the crater, Zhi Xuan immediately began his meditation. He could not waste time. The brief fight against the Giant Earth Scorpion had drained a large part of his transformation essence, and more importantly, the strikes from the boulders had left subtle internal damage.

  He took out two black jade stones from his storage bag and immediately inhaled the thick spiritual essence. He had to return to his peak condition before sunset. The desert at night was a far more cruel place, and the sudden disappearance of the Giant Earth Scorpion would surely attract larger predators—or worse, the cunning Tu Yan might return to investigate.

  The pure spiritual essence from the black jade immediately flooded his meridians, calming the vibrating essence fluctuations. The spiritual Zhi Xuan, beneath the Devil Tree of Life, directed that essence to repair the fine cracks in his Consciousness Transformation foundation. However, he did not just use the essence for recovery. The eleven newly etched Slaughter Seals now pulsed, demanding attention.

  He channeled some of the black jade essence into his Seals, strengthening the bond of the Heavenly-Blood Body Law within his flesh. Each Seal felt like a sturdy anchor, turning his weakness into strength. The warmth spreading from the Seals countered the cold of the internal injuries. In a short time, his Consciousness Transformation foundation was stable again, and his physical foundation felt far more resilient than before.

  "With just your physique, you are on par with a Blood Transformation stage now," Ruo Xianxue commented, her voice calm but with a note of acknowledgment. "Eleven Slaughter Seals give you a Law that cultivators of your realm cannot possess. You can withstand spiritual attacks with just your bare hands."

  Zhi Xuan nodded in his meditation, a thin smile hidden behind the shadow of the Tattered Hood. He did not return Ruo Xianxue’s mockery; that rare praise was enough. Blood Transformation. The mortal realm he passed through quickly was now the benchmark of his physical strength. This meant that for any physical clash in this desert, he possessed an absolute advantage.

  He divided his attention, keeping a small portion of his divine sense focused on the Divine Cauldron. Inside, the alchemical battle continued silently. The giant scorpion, dominated and absorbed, now only let out weak, muffled roars—a funeral song for the Desert Emperor.

  As the cruel desert sun began to set on the horizon, turning the sand into enchanting shades of orange and blood-red, Zhi Xuan opened his eyes. The sky, originally a pale blue, was now decorated with dust clouds left over from the sandstorms, radiating a calm yet threatening aura.

  The red light of dusk crept across the edge of the crater, coloring Zhi Xuan’s Tattered Hood with long, cruel shadows. The silence enveloping the canyon felt deep, broken only by the subtle whir of wind-blown sand. It was a silence full of meaning, like the silence that follows the death of a tyrant.

  The spiritual Zhi Xuan withdrew his divine sense from the Divine Cauldron. Inside, there was no more resistance. The Giant Earth Scorpion, the Desert Emperor, had been completely transformed into pure essence. Its shell, as hard as divine stone, was now merely remaining dust, while its thick Earth and Poison essence, along with the Verdant Titan life essence, had been fully absorbed by Xiao Die’s Cocoon.

  KREK! KRAK! KRAK! WHUMP!

  The sound of a cracking shell came not from the outside, but from within the Heavenly Trifold Reincarnation Cauldron. It was the sound of victory, the sound of a new birth. The fine cracks were immediately followed by a sharp whir, and the overturned bronze Cauldron suddenly emitted a brilliant glow, forcing Zhi Xuan to squint.

  The light was not ordinary spiritual essence light, but an intoxicating blend of gold and jade, radiating a primal life resonance that now far surpassed a Verdant Titan. The resonance was so pure, so oppressive, that it crossed the Five Element realm and reached heights Zhi Xuan had never touched. It was the true aura of the adolescent phase of a Thousand Feather Moth.

  Zhi Xuan immediately leapt to his feet. He felt no threat, only an irresistible attraction. It was the scent of nourishment, the scent of a successful birth, and most importantly, the scent of a spiritual bond that was now deepening. He approached the overturned Cauldron with quick steps, channeling his spiritual essence. He had to lift the Cauldron immediately. The birth of the Thousand Feather Moth would attract attention from thousands of miles away if this aura were not suppressed at once.