I Was Forced to Marry a “Trash” Cultivator, But She Turned Out to Be a Reborn Empress!

Chapter 256: Five Elements Mutual Generation, Giving It All

Day One.

Chi Xiaozi’s Nine Revolutions Flame Dragon Cauldron roared to life, spewing nine-colored True Fire. The dragon reliefs on the bronze surface glowed crimson under the intense heat.

With a sharp intake of breath, he formed a hand seal and tossed the first ingredient—a block of Crimson Flame Essence Gold—into the furnace. The flames instantly surged thirty feet into the air.

“Just melting that Essence Gold will take at least seven days,” an old refiner on the viewing platform commented, stroking his beard sagely. “He’s starting strong.”

Day Five.

Elder Xuanji sat cross-legged in mid-air, his Heavenly Star Compass hovering before him. He channeled the cold, silver power of the stars to slowly temper a chunk of Starfall Iron.

The surface of the meteoric iron had only just begun to glow a dull red. It was far from liquid.

“Truly a top-tier material. Ordinary flames can’t even scratch it,” Elder Mo noted with a nod. “At this rate, the Starfall Iron will need at least fifteen days to fully melt.”

Day Ten.

Fairy Bing Po was sweating. Her Profound Ice Heart Lotus bloomed with bone-chilling cold, freezing a vial of Millennium Cold Marrow to absolute zero before shocking it with intense heat to soften it.

Beads of perspiration rolled down her pale forehead. The consumption of spiritual energy was immense.

“She’s taking a shortcut,” a judge whispered. “Using thermal shock to accelerate melting. Risky, but it saves her five days.”

Day Fifteen.

Shen Xian’s Burning Heaven Cauldron remained maddeningly calm.

Inside, the five Supreme-grade materials floated in a bath of gentle thunder-fire. Their surfaces had barely begun to sheen with moisture. Shen Xian sat with his eyes closed, breathing evenly, as if he were napping rather than competing.

“Hah! Look at him,” Chi Xiaozi’s disciple sneered to his neighbor. “That Earth Vein Dragon Crystal is a divine object. It takes a month just to soften it. At this pace, the finals will be over before he even starts shaping. I’ve won this bet.”

Day Twenty.

Chi Xiaozi finished melting his materials.

Inside the Flame Dragon Cauldron, a pool of crimson liquid began to twist and elongate, taking the rudimentary shape of a long spear. The crowd gasped in admiration.

“As expected of Master Chi Xiao! His speed is terrifying!”

Meanwhile, Shen Xian’s materials were only thirty percent melted.

Tie Shan rubbed his massive hands together, anxiety radiating off him in waves. But when he looked at his Master, Shen Xian was as still as a statue.

Day Twenty-Five.

Elder Xuanji began inscribing star patterns into his molten alloy. Fairy Bing Po entered her final shaping phase.

The spectators began to place their bets on who would take second and third place. The first place seemed locked.

“Wang Yu is going to be dead last,” the disciple laughed loudly. “Halfway through and his materials aren’t even liquid? What a joke!”

Day Thirty.

Just as the other competitors were moving to the final stages, a low, resonant hum emitted from the Burning Heaven Cauldron.

Hummmm.

The five Supreme-grade materials finally surrendered. They dissolved completely, transforming into five distinct streams of liquid light—Red, Green, Yellow, White, Blue.

“He’s only starting now? It’s too late!” The crowd shook their heads.

But then—

The five streams of light didn’t mix chaotically. They began to spin.

Red fed into Yellow. Yellow fed into White. White fed into Blue. Blue fed into Green. Green fed into Red.

A perfect, self-sustaining vortex formed within the cauldron. The thunder patterns on the exterior of the vessel lit up one by one, blindingly bright.

“This is…” Elder Mo shot to his feet, overturning his tea table.

Shen Xian opened his eyes. A faint, confident smile touched his lips.

“The Five Elements Mutually Generate. The cycle is endless. Now, the real work begins.”

He slammed his palms together.

BOOM!

The vortex inside the cauldron accelerated violently.

The heavy gravity of the Earth Vein Dragon Crystal. The scorching heat of the Nine Cycles Fire Lotus. The vibrant life force of the Yi Wood Azure Dragon Vine. The crushing weight of the Profound Nether Heavy Water. The razor sharpness of the Taibai Essence Gold.

They didn’t clash. They danced. They fed each other, amplifying their properties in an infinite loop.

“That… that is the Five Elements Mutual Generation Method?!”

A white-haired Grandmaster in the audience screamed, his voice cracking. “That is a lost art! Legend says only a Fifth-Rank Grandmaster can control such a cycle!”

Elder Mo’s pupils contracted to pinpoints. He stared into the cauldron, mesmerized.

With every rotation, the materials purified themselves. Impurities were ground into nothingness by the sheer force of the elemental cycle. No slag. No waste. Only essence.

“No manual intervention… self-purification…” Mo murmured, trembling. “This isn’t refining. This is… Enlightenment.”

On the platform, Chi Xiaozi’s hands shook. The flames in his dragon cauldron flickered, destabilized by his sudden loss of focus.

He stared at Shen Xian with eyes full of horror.

“Impossible! How can he control five conflicting Supreme materials so easily?! That should be a bomb, not a cycle!”

Elder Xuanji’s star compass dimmed. His carefully calculated Star Refining Art suddenly felt clumsy and crude compared to the elegance of Shen Xian’s loop.

Fairy Bing Po’s face turned white. Her nine ice lotuses trembled. Her pride in balancing Ice and Fire felt like a child’s trick in the face of this perfect elemental harmony.

“Master… is a god!” Tie Shan shook with excitement, his knuckles cracking.

Zhang Yu fanned himself rapidly, his eyes shining. “Five Elements Mutual Generation. This is the True Dao.”

Su Mu watched, her fingers twitching as she tried to mimic Shen Xian’s hand seals. She stopped, realized she couldn’t even copy ten percent of the complexity. “So this… is Master’s true power.”

Inside the cauldron, the five-colored light spun faster and faster, coalescing into a vague shape. It was neither sword nor seal. It was something else entirely.

High above, the Void Refinement Celestial Venerable set down his tea. A flicker of genuine appreciation crossed his ancient eyes.

“Interesting little monster…”

The venue fell into a deathly silence. Everyone held their breath, waiting to see what would emerge from that vortex.

Seeing Shen Xian’s display, the other five masters went mad. They knew that if they didn’t push beyond their limits, they would be reduced to footnotes in his legend.

Day Forty-Five.

Chi Xiaozi’s eyes were bloodshot. He bit the tip of his tongue and spat a mouthful of Life Essence Blood onto his cauldron.

“Flame Sun True Dragon Art! Burn my life, forge my soul!”

The nine fire dragons merged into one massive, crimson-gold True Dragon. It roared, diving into the molten metal.

A crimson spear materialized in the dragon’s jaws. The tip shone with a light so sharp it seemed to pierce the void itself.

“Master Chi Xiao is burning his lifespan!” the crowd gasped. “He’s going all out!”

Elder Xuanji was no better. His hair turned white as snow, his face aging decades in seconds. He formed a seal, and the Star Marrow on his compass exploded with light.

“Stars of the Heavens, hear my command!”

The Big Dipper manifested in the daylight sky. Seven pillars of starlight slammed down onto his compass, forcing the metal into its final shape.

“He’s using his longevity as fuel to borrow the power of the stars…” Elder Mo looked grave. “Xuanji is staking his life on this one throw.”

Day Sixty.

Fairy Bing Po finished first.

The nine ice lotuses bloomed in unison. An Ice Soul Cold Light Sword shot into the sky. The blade was split down the middle—half ice-blue, half crimson-red. The air around it froze and burned simultaneously.

“A fine sword!” a judge praised. “Top-grade Spirit Treasure, peak quality!”

Next, Mister Baicao’s Myriad Weapons War Soul Armor rumbled into existence, dark red and screaming with the phantom roars of trapped souls.

“Masterpieces. All of them,” the audience buzzed. “But what about him?”

All eyes turned back to Shen Xian.

The five-colored light had condensed into a blur, but the final form was still unstable. It lacked the final step.

Just as the crowd began to whisper about failure—

Shen Xian changed his seal.

His ten fingers moved in a blur, weaving a hand seal so ancient and profound that the air around him warped.

“That is…” Elder Mo stood up, knocking over his chair. “The Heavenly Craft Nine Seals?!”

The Burning Heaven Cauldron shook violently. The lightning patterns on its surface peeled away from the bronze, transforming into nine physical dragons of lightning that wrapped around the artifact embryo.

Guided by the thunder dragons, the five-colored light began its final, violent fusion.