Fu Ying watched Zhou Xuan go upstairs. She originally wanted to follow him upstairs to discuss it with him, but Zhou Xuan said he was going upstairs to take a shower, so she felt embarrassed to follow him.
Zhou Xuan wasn't there to take a bath, of course. He hurried upstairs to his room, then went to the safe, entered the password, and opened the safe. The Nine Dragon Cauldron and the nine Nine Star Pearls lay quietly inside.
After taking out the Nine Dragons Cauldron, Zhou Xuan thought for a moment and decided not to take out the Nine Star Pearl. If the Nine Dragons Cauldron was destroyed, then there would be no danger if only the Nine Star Pearl remained, since the Nine Star Pearl could only absorb energy and not create a time-traveling machine.
Most importantly, the Nine-Star Bead is extremely useful to Zhou Xuan, because it not only absorbs energy, but is also a super storage device. The energy that the Nine-Star Bead can store far exceeds that of the previous ice crystals.
After Zhou Xuan took out the Nine Dragon Cauldron, he closed the safe. Without the Nine Star Pearls, the Nine Dragon Cauldron was just a useless ornament.
Without the Nine Star Pearl inside, Zhou Xuan didn't need to worry about activating the Nine Dragon Cauldron. Regardless of the type of energy, it could only be transmitted to the cauldron's activation mechanism through the Nine Star Pearl. Activating the Nine Dragon Cauldron required an enormous amount of energy. If Zhou Xuan used his special ability to power it, he could only give the cauldron the ability to freeze and pause time temporarily. For him personally, his special ability was already quite powerful, but for the Nine Dragon Cauldron, it was merely a drop in the ocean, a mere drop in the ocean.
Moreover, to activate the Nine Dragon Cauldron, regardless of the level, whether it's freezing time slightly or traveling through time to the past or future, the energy must be converted from the Nine Star Pearl and then transferred to the Nine Dragon Cauldron to have any effect.
Once the Nine Dragon Cauldron is destroyed, the Nine Star Pearl will be completely useless to everyone else. Only Zhou Xuan can absorb the energy within the Nine Star Pearl—the energy of the Solar Flame—using his special ability. No one else can absorb it, and if they were to unleash the Solar Flame energy, they would likely be burned to ashes.
Zhou Xuan took the Nine Dragon Cauldron in his hand and tried to transform it using his special ability, but he still couldn't transform it. He then used the extremely high temperature energy of the Tai Lie Yan, raising the temperature to a level that frightened him, and then cast this high temperature energy onto the Nine Dragon Cauldron.
It seemed as if a wisp of blue flame was emanating from the surface of the Nine Dragon Cauldron. If it were a piece of pig iron, it would probably have melted, but the Nine Dragon Cauldron remained intact.
Zhou Xuan scratched his head, thought for a moment, then picked up the Nine Dragon Cauldron and smashed it hard on the floor. With a "bang," the Nine Dragon Cauldron bounced up and fell back to the floor. He picked it up again and looked at it. The Nine Dragon Cauldron was still intact. It was truly indestructible, neither burned nor smashed. Zhou Xuan was at a loss for what to do.
This Nine Dragon Cauldron is extremely light in weight, which suggests it's not metal. Yet it's unbreakable and indestructible, something no non-metallic material could withstand. What kind of material is it made of? And how can it be destroyed?
He held it in his hand and examined it for a long time, but his supernatural abilities couldn't detect what it was. The intense heat of the sun's flames couldn't burn it, and it couldn't be broken by smashing it. He had no idea how to destroy the Nine Dragon Cauldron.
Zhou Xuan pondered for a long time. The Nine Dragon Cauldron was so resistant to high temperatures that even if it were thrown into a furnace, it might not be able to be refined. Moreover, in an ultra-high temperature furnace, there was a risk that the heat energy would stimulate the Nine Dragon Cauldron.
What should we do?
When Zhou Xuan thought about his superpowers, he suddenly realized that he had always been using the high-temperature power of the sun's flames. Why not try his ultra-low-temperature ice power?
They probably thought that the high temperature of the sun's flames could melt everything, while even the lowest temperature could only freeze things and not melt them away, so they didn't think of using ice-based abilities.
When all else failed, Zhou Xuan didn't care and unconsciously channeled his ice energy into the Nine Dragon Cauldron, lowering the temperature to its lowest point. This low temperature even far exceeded the lowest temperature that could be reached on Earth, and a layer of white ice clearly seeped out from the surface of the Nine Dragon Cauldron.
Zhou Xuan gripped the Nine Dragon Cauldron with both hands, raised it high, and then slammed it down onto the floor with all his might.
Volume 1, Chapter 420
The Nine Dragon Cauldron slammed hard against the floor E with a loud "bang," followed by a sound like pearls falling onto a jade plate. The Nine Dragon Cauldron shattered into hundreds and thousands of small particles, which were scattered all over the floor of the room.
On the shattered Nine Dragon Cauldron material, each small particle resembled a broken piece of ice, with traces of frost on each one.
Zhou Xuan was overjoyed. Destroying the Nine Dragon Cauldron was an improvement. He quickly squatted down and picked up the fragments of the Nine Dragon Cauldron one by one, piling them up on the glass table.
After Zhou Xuan finished picking them up, he looked at the pile of particles again and used his special ability to detect them. He still couldn't figure out what kind of material these particles were. He also couldn't burn them with high temperature. It seems that he has to find a place to bury these fragments and make them disappear.
Zhou Xuan didn't dare to throw them in the trash can. He couldn't guarantee that if someone picked up the fragments and glued them together, they wouldn't be unusable. The only way was to make it impossible for anyone to gather the fragments together.
Zhou Xuan thought for a moment, then found a black plastic bag and put the fragments of the Nine Dragon Cauldron into it. He then locked it in the safe, intending to take it out later when he thought of where to throw it away. In any case, he couldn't just throw it away, just in case.
Around eleven o'clock, Aunt Liu made some porridge and a few cold dishes. Zhou Xuan and Fu Ying ate a little bit. After eating, Jin Xiumei stayed with Fu Ying in the living room, chatting and watching TV until midnight. This was unprecedented; they usually went to bed before eleven o'clock.
Zhou Xuan didn't care about anything else, and he didn't care whether it was time for his meal or not. He ate and then went to sleep. He was thinking about the Nine Dragon Cauldron, and that was all he could think about. An Jie had left a very deep impression on Zhou Xuan. In all his life, no woman had ever left such a deep impression on him.
Of course, Fu Ying also left a deep impression on Zhou Xuan. One was affectionate, while the other was fiercer than a man, which made Zhou Xuan fearless. If An Jie were a man, Zhou Xuan wouldn't find it strange, but she was a woman, and it was truly rare to see a woman so fierce.
If this happened abroad, like in Somalia, Zhou Xuan would not hesitate to eliminate An Jie from this world. Zhou Xuan is much more ruthless now, and he will not tolerate anything that threatens his family, relatives, or friends.
In the past, An Jie would not have thought that such miraculous things really existed in the world, so she did not spend time and effort to investigate Zhou Xuan and his people. But now that An Jie has seen them alive and well, although she has not actually witnessed the magical power of the Nine Dragon Cauldron, she can imagine that they are interested in it. These are the people that Zhou Xuan is afraid of. In any case, An Jie will not give up. With her wealth and resources, it will not be difficult for her to find out about Zhou Xuan.
If it were just Zhou Xuan alone, he certainly wouldn't be afraid. It wouldn't be so easy for An Jie to deal with him. But his family would be in trouble. Zhou Xuan couldn't be by his family's side all the time. Perhaps if he turned around or left for a moment, tragedy might happen.
It was this worry that made Zhou Xuan feel troubled and afraid, and he always felt like something was pressing down on his heart, making it impossible for him to relax.
He hadn't had a proper rest these past few days, and should have been exhausted enough to fall asleep easily. However, Zhou Xuan lay in bed for a long time without being able to sleep. An Jie's image kept flashing through his mind. What bothered Zhou Xuan even more was that Fu Ying wasn't the real Fu Ying, and he couldn't get her into the timeline he wanted. If he used the Nine Dragon Cauldron again, Zhou Xuan had no idea what the consequences would be. But one thing he could be sure of was that things would definitely not go as he imagined.
Rather than causing more trouble, it's better to see Fu Ying alive and well in front of him now than to fall into some unknown space or into some so-called hell.
However, even if they wanted to bring Fu Ying back to her original space, there was nothing they could do. Zhou Xuan had already destroyed the Nine Dragon Cauldron.
After tossing and turning for half the night, Zhou Xuan couldn't fall asleep, so he found a book on antique appraisal and focused on reading, not wanting to think about anything else. This time, he fell asleep in no time.
It seems that reading is a true lullaby; not only do I fall asleep, but I sleep very soundly and peacefully.
When Zhou Xuan woke up in the morning, he saw a red patch on the curtains, obviously due to the rising sun shining on them. Since it was winter, he didn't feel the heat.
Zhou Xuan stretched, then sat up, glanced at the clock—it was only 6:50, still early—but he couldn't fall back asleep, so he got up, washed up, and went downstairs.
Downstairs, only Aunt Liu got up early to make breakfast; everyone else was still asleep. Jin Xiumei and Fu Ying had been chatting late the night before, while Zhou Ying and Zhou Tao, the siblings, were still asleep because they were tired from work.
Zhou Xuan greeted Aunt Liu and said, "Aunt Liu, I'm going out for a walk, just browsing around. Don't wait for me. If I come back, we'll eat together. If I don't, you can eat as usual, don't worry about me!"
After Zhou Xuan finished speaking, he went out the door, left Hongcheng Garden, and then walked aimlessly onto the street.
It was too early. Zhou Xuan had only taken a few steps when a tall woman in a light red winter coat walked towards him. Their eyes met, and they were both taken aback for a moment before exclaiming at the same time, "It's you?"
This woman is actually Wei Xiaoyu!
This time, Zhou Xuan was absolutely certain that she wasn't Wei Xiaoqing. The one with the mole was Wei Xiaoqing, and the one without the mole was Wei Xiaoyu. The extremely tiny mole was hard to spot because it was hidden in the corner of her hair. If Zhou Xuan's ability to detect was not so powerful, it would have been impossible for him to spot it.
Zhou Xuan had a preconceived notion about Wei Xiaoyu because she always wore a neat and proper military uniform and never joked, always with a very serious expression.
A girl who is extremely beautiful always has the same expression, so naturally not many people will forget her. Zhou Xuan remembers that Wei Xiaoqing and Wei Xiaoyu's expressions are completely different. Although the two are identical sisters, people who are often together will be familiar with each other and cannot tell them apart by their appearance, but they can be distinguished by their expressions and clothes.
However, Wei Xiaoyu's personality has changed too much since she followed Zhou Xuan for a while. She has no personality like before. So even Zhou Xuan has been fooled several times. Now, if he really wants to tell the difference, he can only rely on his special ability to detect the small mole on his forehead. That way, he can be more sure!
Volume 1, Chapter 421: Something Big Has Happened