Chapter 126 - Preparation Is Key
In the past, whenever Bai Xiaochun glanced at this sculpture, he could only feel that this sculpture had an imposing aura that could arouse a valiant fighting intent. However, he couldn’t clearly describe the statue in detail.
Perhaps it was due to his continuous observations of the four mountain guarding beasts, or because he had reached the point that could allow him to breakthrough his Spirit of Life at any moment, which caused him to subconsciously use his method of observing beasts on this sculpture, causing him to focus not at the sculpture’s entire body, but its scales.
In the moment that Bai Xiaochun looked at the scales, these seemingly ordinary scales, which seemed to be a normal carving, unexpectedly caused the aura from the Water Nation Technique’s Spirit of Life to intensify. In an instant, he felt an intense surge of power.
At the same time, he seemed as if he heard a roar that came from the ancient times.
He didn’t know whether this scene was a hallucination or not, so he began to discretely fix his gaze on it. However, it disappeared in an instant, and following that, the instense feeling that came from the Water Nation Technique’s Spirit of Life slowly calmed down.
Bai Xiaochun’s breathing became rapid, he suddenly walked forward and directly sat in a cross-legged position right below the sculpture. He raised his head and stared directly at the sculpture. He vaguely felt that the scene, which he had unexpectedly experienced earlier, wasn’t an illusion.
“This sculpture… is unusual!” Bai Xiaochun took a deep breath and he unceasingly focused his gaze on the sculpture. He did not gaze at the sculpture as a whole, but instead, he fully concentrated on the countless scales on the sculpture.
Unfortunately, Bai Xiaochun found these “ordinary” scales to be extremely hard to remember. It was an extremely strange situation, he was able to see it, but was unable to remember it.
This sort of phenomenon, instead of causing Bai Xiaochun to be discouraged, it actually strengthened his persistence. His eyes glistened as he was completely immersed in the scales in front of him.
Time passed and it quickly became the evening. In the centre area of the North Bank, where the Testing Stage was, disciples of the North Bank constantly walked passed. They noticed Bai Xiaochun firmly staring at the Testing Stage’s sculpture, making all of them to be flabbergasted. However, they did not stop to pay attention to him, and instead, they just withdrew their gazes and continued walking.
On the morning of the second day, the disciples that saw Bai Xiaochun the day before walked past the Testing Stage once again. They unexpectedly saw Bai Xiaochun again; it was as if he had never left this place and maintained this state for the whole time, so much so that his eyes had turned bloodshot from staring at the sculpture. The moment they saw him, they became even more dumbfounded.
Bai Xiaochun knew that he could only rely on this sculpture to breakthrough. Apart from this, he truly had no other methods. He felt as if he had every possible solution for the Water Nation Technique’s Spirit of Life. Observing the spirit beast of the Hundred Beasts Courtyard, observing the four great mountain guarding beasts... and even secretly observing the combat beasts of many disciples of the North Bank!
However, the Water Nation Technique’s Spirit of Life never appeared. Perhaps if the Spirit of Life didn’t show any signs of appearing, it would’ve been fine, and perhaps he wouldn’t have wasted a tremendous amount of time on it. However, the Spirit of Life gave him a feeling that it was about to be birthed at any moment. It was as if it could be felt, yet it could not be seen. It was so close, yet as far as the heavens.
This sort of jumpy feeling caused Bai Xiaochun to have some sort of discomfort. At this moment, he had finally grasped a strand of opportunity; it unleashed the part of his personality that would chip away at a task and not abandon it at all costs.
It was as if the persistence, which had appeared during the period when he refined medicine, had once again appeared within the Bai Xiaochun who sat in front of the sculpture. Even if one night had passed and his eyes had turned bloodshot, or even if the scene which had appeared yesterday would not arise once again, Bai Xiaochun still wouldn’t give up.
He even had a strong feeling that if he gave up, then this Water Nation Technique… perhaps, he would never be able to birth a Spirit of Life during his lifetime. However, if he grasped this opportunity, then this Water Nation Technique's Spirit of Life would break through its cocoon and emerge!
"I don’t believe it!" Bai Xiaochun clenched his teeth, fixed his gaze and carefully observed the armour of scales, unceasingly sketching its image in his mind.
He was concentrated so intensely that unconsciously, he had sealed his hearing, his smell, and his other sensory organs, fully putting all of his mind on his vision. The days passed one by one and by the time it was the morning of the fourth day, many disciples of the North Bank were astonished by Bai Xiaochun’s action, and gradually, they began to gossip about him.
“Bai Xiaochun has already been under the Testing Stage’s sculpture for four days… What is he doing? Observing the Testing Stage’s Sculpture?”
“That Testing Stage’s sculpture truly is mysterious. I’ve heard that many people have been there to observe it, trying to gain some benefits. However, besides Senior Brother Gui Ya, nobody has ever succeeded!”
As a small section of North Bank’s disciples were discussing, the inner sect disciples of the North Bank also began paying attention to this. There were many that specially came here, watching Bai Xiaochun. Seeing his mad, demonic state, they all took a deep breath.
“So he is only trying to observe it and engrave it in his memory; he’s not really trying to gain enlightenment. Even though this Testing Stage’s sculpture contains many secrets, not anyone can obtain enlightenment from it.
“I’ve seen some ancient records. Ever since this sculpture was obtained by the sect from the Ancient Beast Abyss four thousand years ago and set up here, it is unknown whether the elders have obtained any enlightenment from it. But within the disciples… before Gui Ya, no one has ever obtained enlightenment from it.
“We have also tried seeking enlightenment from this sculpture, however, we had no choice but to give up. Nobody could sense anything, unless they were someone like Gui Ya, who borrowed his observations to enter the fabled Realm of Enlightenment. Many people have tried, yet they have only wasted an enormous amount of time. Some people have spent ten days, some have spent fifteen days, and the people who have spent the most time here have spent twenty days, and even their bodies became so weak that they fainted.
Beihan Lie, the Gongsun siblings, Xu Song and the many Heaven’s Chosen of the inner sect understood that Bai Xiaochun was not actually trying to gain enlightenment, making them heave a sigh of relief.
Even the four mountain Ancestors were paying attention to Bai Xiaochun, who was below the sculpture, and expectation appeared on their faces.
“Who knows whether this Bai Xiaochun can become like Gui Ya and obtain benefits from this sculpture or not.
“This requires destiny, enlightenment, hard work, and not a single one of these things can be missing. For example, there may be countless people who look at a chaotic painting, but only see the chaos within. There will also be some people that could actually see order, and there are also some people that will see the hidden painting within the chaos. Similarly, there will be an extremely small number of people that see… something that is totally different from what everyone else had seen.
Bai Xiaochun was indeed observing, but he was not necessarily trying to gain enlightenment. The entirety of his eyes were slowly turning bloodshot. The scales in his eyes appeared to have been infinitely magnified, and it had actually replaced the entire world. He felt that he had seen heaven and earth within the scales, and had seen countless floating creatures. He could not tell what they were, and it could even be possible that they were a hallucination. Bai Xiaochun did not care about these things, and his only thought was to remember the shape of these scales, trying to carve them out in his mind.
He didn’t know how many times he had tried. Perhaps, it was a thousand times; perhaps, it was ten thousand times; perhaps, it was even more, so much that his Three Energies had slowly dimmed. However, he had still failed during all those attempts.
No Comments Yet
Post a new comment
Register or Login