The Path Toward Heaven Chapter 337

Chapter 337: Heaven and Earth in a Jar

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The dreadful cries and the angry swears of the prisoners could be heard in the Fiend Prison. It was unclear how many cells had suddenly become smaller and how many prisoners inside them were compressed into meat pies as a result.
The dreadful cries and the angry swears grew closer as the distance between heaven and earth narrowed; and then the cries and swears sounded distant again, not because heaven and earth separated again, but because the tipped over cliff and the rising pond bottom were fused together to form a closed space made of rocks.
Heaven and earth were compressed closer and closer, and all the objects were squashed as a result. The rocks were squeezed so much that they became incredibly hard, leaving no crevice between them.
It was quite difficult for the Underworld Emperor to break through the space in his current state.
The surfaces of the dense and hard rocks were very smooth, and the green pond water in the midst of the rocks formed countless sprays. The mosses on the rocks were knocked into pieces by the water sprays, and plentiful foam was generated.
The scene looked like a huge shapeless hand shaking a jar full of alcohol, the green alcohol in the jar wobbling incessantly.
The Underworld Emperor and the old man were inside this alcohol jar.
Seeing this, the Underworld Emperor recalled the poem Taiping cited when they ate the hotpot by the Underworld River a great many years ago: The newly brewed rice wine looks green and tastes fragrant.
The Underworld Emperor smiled and waved his sleeves to rise up. He flew up from the green pond and arrived in midair.
Perceiving the summoning of his spiritual awareness, tens of thousands of the soul fires in the Fiend Prison started moving at a high speed again. They turned into tens of thousands of the little Underworld emperors and entered those cracks again.
The old man grunted painfully, his face extremely pale. He passed through the mountain like waves formed by the pond water and reached out his hands as quick as lightning.
The space inside the Fiend Prison had been abruptly decreasing, and the cliff and the pond became an alcohol jar without an opening.
The Underworld Emperor had nowhere to escape, and both of his hands were caught by the old man. The Underworld Emperor was pulled back to the pond by the old man.
“I’m a divine dragon, able to manipulate the clouds and rains, and able to get as big as a mountain or to become as small as a grain of dust. As long as you leave my weak spots alone, I’ll show you the truly powerful methods of a godly immortal!” the old man exclaimed.
The Underworld Emperor was trapped in the stone jar, and the membrane formed by the Soul-Fire covering his body was eroded by the pond water and grew increasingly thinner; but no fear was shown on his face.
“It is merely the Heaven and Earth in a Jar of the Bai Family, which shouldn’t be considered as a magic of the fairy immortals. You are actually a figure in the Heavenly Arrival State, but you can only use such an insignificant magic while hiding underground; you haven’t shown any aura of an ancient divine animal. The Rosefinch threw herself into the heavenly fire out of rage back then; you are always an insect in comparison to her.”
The old man said, “Your Majesty, it’s useless to try to humiliate me. As long as I can extend my life infinitely, I don’t mind hiding underground, and I’m not ashamed of using the insignificant magic.”
The Underworld Emperor asked genuinely, “Your body turned into the Fiend Prison, and you don’t see the sky and sun all year long; don’t you feel bored and lonely?”
“There is a heaven and earth inside the jar; there is no difference between this place and the outside world.”
The old man was fully aware that the Underworld Emperor was simply killing time while thinking of a way to escape; he didn’t mind at all.
Nobody had ever escaped from the Heaven and Earth in a Jar.
The Heaven and Earth in a Jar was indeed not a magic of the fairy immortals; it was one of the most powerful magic methods in the human world.
Every time the Old Dragon employed the Heaven and Earth in a Jar, he would lose the Cultivation he had built up in three hundred years. As such, he had never thought to use the magic to deal with Jing Jiu, because the Old Dragon thought Jing Jiu was not worth the effort. However, it was different in the case of the Underworld Emperor; as long as he could eat the Underworld Emperor, the Cultivation of three hundred years would be recuperated easily.
The jar formed by the cliff and the pond bottom became even smaller, without much space left. The old man and the Underworld Emperor were both in the pond water now.
The greenish pond water slapped the Underworld Emperor’s face. He looked hilarious with moss hanging from his ears, that and because he didn’t have the eyebrows.
He was in immediate danger.
The membrane formed by his Soul-Fire covering his forefinger had a crack after being eroded for a long enough time, and the pond water seeped in. The skin of his forefinger was rotting away visibly, and a band of white smoke came out from the finger.
The old man was in a similar predicament. As the Fiend Prison was abruptly shrinking, the density of the attacks from the soul fires increased. The pain became more unbearable for him. His face looked as white as a ghost.
“This pond should be your stomach, and the water in the pond should be your gastric juice, able to erode any object,” the Underworld Emperor said while looking at the old man. “Though you are transformed by the spiritual soul, you are almost a tangible body; so you are just in as much danger as I am. You and I don’t have any insurmountable grudge between us; why would you take so much risk to kill me?”
The old man suddenly laughed out loud, as he said, “No, you and I don’t have any grudge. It’s because I want to eat you. In fact, I wanted to do so a long time ago. Unfortunately, the Immortal Bai had put you in the Taichang Prison, so I couldn’t get to you. It’s an excellent opportunity for me today. If I ate you today, who would be my equal in the world? You probably didn’t anticipate that you would bring yourself to my mouth after you and that little crook of Green Mountain did so much today.”
The Underworld Emperor responded with a small smile, “Oh, that’s what you intend to do. However, have you ever wondered how you could eat me since you failed even to eat him when he was so close to your mouth?”
As the Underworld Emperor said this, he turned his hands around and grabbed the old man’s wrists.
The old man was bewildered, not knowing why he would do this.
In the beginning, he held the Underworld Emperor’s hands in order to activate the Heaven and Earth in a Jar without any disturbance.
Now that the Underworld Emperor was trapped in the Heaven and Earth in a Jar, soaking in the green water of the pond, the Underworld Emperor would be eroded into blood water to dissolve into nothingness; but what was the intention of holding his hands?
Do you think that I will be eroded by the green water of the pond into blood as well? This is an absurd idea.
As the old man was thinking of this, he suddenly felt something out of place. His expression changed when he looked down at their hands locking together.
His own fingers were sinking into the Underworld Emperor’s wrists, slowly breaking through the skin and flesh, until the ends of his fingers almost submerged in the wrists.
It was quite disgusting either to think of or to see the scene. The old man felt nauseous.
What was going on?
The old man had a strong feeling of uneasiness.
The Heaven and Earth in a Jar had already been completed. The Underworld Emperor would have no way to escape from it, no matter how powerful he was. The old man contemplated leaving here soon.
Once he left the place, the Underworld Emperor would have no choice but to turn into nothingness in the poisonous water of the pond, no matter what magic he tried to use.
Since the old man was the spiritual soul of the Old Dragon, so he was able to disappear and reappear anywhere in the Fiend Prison. Nobody could stop him from doing so.
It was this reason why Jing Jiu couldn’t get away from the old man earlier even though he employed the Underworld Fairy Sword.
Regardless of how the old man activated his spiritual awareness and what magic he employed, he couldn’t even get out of the pond. The old man had been standing in front of the Underworld Emperor the entire time.
“You are a spiritual soul. Even though you are the spiritual soul of the Old Dragon, you are still just a spiritual soul.”
The Underworld Emperor said to the old man with a smirk, “Speaking of the control of the spiritual souls…I am the best in both heaven and the Underworld.”
This was the true Control of Soul-Fire.
The old man’s face turned paler instantly. It wasn’t because of the pain from the wounds, but because of what the Underworld Emperor had just said and what would probably happen to him.
It would be a dreadful outcome, which was something he had done to many prisoners before.
He would be eaten by the Underworld Emperor.