A Will Eternal - Chapter 4

Chapter 4 – Spirit Refinement

All the Fatties became overjoyed. They all looks towards Bai Xiaochun, their impression of him was currently at an all time high. They thought not only was this Bai Xiaochun cute, his gut was also full of dirty tricks. Hence, Senior Fatty Zhang decided to rewarded Bai Xiaochun with a spiritual rice grain.

Bai Xiaochun smiled happily and returned to his room in a daze. Before he could finish climbing onto his bed, the countless heavenly medicinal treasures condensed inside his body suddenly erupt, causing him to pass out on the ground, snoring.

This sleep was delightfully extraordinary. The next day, Bai Xiaochun eyes shot opened, his mind in high spirits. He looked down to discover that he has grown fatter by size, his entire body covered in sticky, black grime. He quickly left to clean himself up. The group of Fatty Zhang people were currently busy making breakfast for the inner disciples. When they saw Bai Xiaochun, a smile broke out on their faces.

“Ninth Brother, that dirt is the impurities from inside your body. It will be very beneficial later on during your cultivation without them. In the next few days, we can manage without you. You can come back to work later.”

“That spiritual grain is a very good item, remember to eat it quickly, leaving it out for a long time won’t do it any good.”

Bai Xiaochun’s mind cleared up as he nodded in reply. When he turned to his room, his eyes fell on the turtle shell wok. He carried it outside and gave it a quick scrub before bringing it back and placing it on the stove. He looked at the spiritual rice grain in his hand. This grain was as large as a pinky finger, it was translucent and shiny. There was a lovely fragrance emanating from it.

“ The kind of things immortals get to eat truly cannot be compared with normal food.” Bai Xiaochun sighed full of emotion. He threw some wooden logs underneath the stove to kindle the flames. Just as the fire ignited, a current of heatwave flowed out, causing Bai Xiaochun to quickly retreat. He stared at the flames, amazed.

“This fire is also one of a king, not only does it burn quickly, the flame’s temperature is also very high.” Bai Xiaochun turned his eye towards the wood inside the stove. These must no ordinary wooden logs.

Suddenly, after the fire has been ignited, Bai Xiaochun was surprised to find that the first rune stripe of the turtle shell wok began to slowly glowed. Once it has started, the subsequent stripes of runes began to glow in order from the bottom upwards.

Bai Xiaochun stared blankly for a while, and then he suddenly slapped his thigh.

“ Didn’t I already said so, this is a treasure. It is certainly even better then the Senior Brother’s wok.” The more he looked at it the more extraordinary he has found this wok. He quickly threw the spiritual grain into the heated wok.

While waiting on the side, he picked up the Violet Qi Cauldron Technique manual and began to practice based on the first drawing once more.

After starting for a moment, Bai Xiaochun’s immediately shot opened, he discovered that this technique that has given him extreme difficulty yesterday has suddenly became effortless. He did not felt any discomfort, even the breathing technique did not cause him any trouble. Instead, it has gave him a refreshing feeling.

He persisted for awhile more. He found that while at the beginning he could at best took three to four breathes, he has now able to surpass eight breathes, and there was no pain.

Enduring his excitement, Bai Xiaochun forced himself to calm down and persist for thirty more breathes. When his body began to ache, suddenly inside his body appeared a trickle of gas. This gas was cold as ice, and it quickly circulate around his body. Even though it has dissipated before completing a complete round, this still made Bai Xiaochun jumped up in excitement.

“ There’s Qi, haha , there’s Qi!” Bai Xiaochun was so happy he felt like he would go crazy. He paced back and forth inside his room. Thinking back on last night about how he has eaten all those precious treasures, he quietly thought that he really didn’t have enough.

“No wonder Senior Zhang said that he would rather starve to death at the Hearthfire Kitchen instead of becoming an outside disciple. This kind of good fortune, even outside disciples cannot hope to have.” Bai Xiaochun quickly sat down and continued to train.

This time, he relied on the Violet Qi Cauldron Technique first stage breathing technique and the motion from the first drawing. He endured for a further sixty breathes in the blink of an eye, at which point a trickle of qi twice as powerful one appeared and quickly moved throughout his body.

By now, Bai Xiaochun already has some experience. He quickly followed the instructions from the first drawing and quietly attempted to control the path of circulation within his body.

Very quickly, the qi inside him followed his commands and travelled through his pulses. As he persist with the first drawing’s guidance, he even began to sense that inside his body there was countless tiny units of cold gas slowly surged out from all over his body. These tiny units condensed into a small droplet and joined the trickle of Qi circulating inside him, causing it grow even bigger.

In the end, the trickle of Qi has turned into a tiny stream. After it made one more complete circulation through his body, Bai Xiaochun’s entire body shook, his head releases a cloud of steam as a sound detonated inside it.

An unprecedented lively sensation were birthed inside his body, torrents of impurities streamed out from his pores ceaselessly.

Inside him, the small stream of Qi still exists, and instead of dissipating over time, it has became a symbiotic part of him. As the flow of Qi slowly travels through him, Bai Xiaochun opened his eyes, which has turned clearer and livelier.

Even his entire body felt much more nimble than in the past.

“Maintaining a stream of Qi, this is the Violet Qi Cauldron Technique first stage’s effect. This also means that I have reached the first stage of Qi Condensing!” Bai Xiaochun was so happy he couldn’t control himself. He left to clean himself.

Fatty Zhang’s group noticed that he has came out, and gave each other a knowing smile. Towards Bai Xiaochun’s astounding progress, even though they were slightly surprised, they still understood the reason.

When he returned to his room, Bai Xiaochun breathe in deeply several times and picked up the bamboo tome and observed it closely.

“After reaching the first stage of Qi Condensing, I can manipulate a few items. This is definitely an immortal technique, it can even move things without touching them!” Bai Xiaochun’s eyes brighten, he followed the instructions of from the manual, his two hands forming a simple formation and pointed it at the table next to him. He instantly felt the tiny streams inside of his body responding, they rode his pulses, reaching the very tip of his finger and then shot out from inside.

An invisible thread was created and it attached itself to the table, creating a connection. Unfortunately, just as the connection was made, it grew unstable and snapped.

Bai Xiaochun’s face paled, and only a while later did he fully recovered. Thinking about it carefully, he ignored the table and pulled out a wooden sword. He didn’t know what kind of wood was used during it’s creation, but while it was not as heavy as the table, it still had quite a heft to it. He lifted his hand and point towards it.

The wooden sword suddenly shook and slowly began to float, but only for a moment, as it immediately fell down.

Bai Xiaochun also did not became frustrated, and as he repeated this attempt many times, the wooden sword began to float even higher before dropping. Ten inches, twenty inches, thirty inches… by sunset, he was able to fully lift the wooden sword. Even though its speed was not very fast, and it was hard to control, but it would no longer so easily drop like before.

“From this day forward this Bai Xiaochun is truly on the path of immortality!” Bai Xiaochun stood there with a proud expression, His left arm backward while his right arm swung wildly in front, causing the wooden sword to fly back and forth.

Only when he did not have any breath left did he retrieved the wooden sword. He wanted to continue his cultivation when suddenly a delicious fragrant flowed out from inside the wok. He lift his head and sucked in a deep breath, and was instantly famished. Today he was busy with training and has completely forgotten that the wok that was stewing the spiritual rice grain. He stepped forward and took off the lid of the wok.

Moments after her lifted up the lid, a thick sweet scent flowed out from the the spiritual rice grain. However the most surprising thing was that inside the rice grain was a blindingly bright rune!

This rune was extremely clear. Looking closely, one can feel an overwhelming sesnation coming from this symbol. After some time, the rune slowly dimmed and became silver. Bai Xiaochun narrows his eyes, after thinking for abit he picked up the spiritual grain and inspect it closely.

“This symbol looks familiar…” Bai Xiaochun’s eyes seems to be in deep thought. He bent over and looked at the stove and discovered that the fire has long been extinguished, even the wooden log has turned into ashes. The runes stripe on the wok has once again grew dim.

He instantly recognized that the rune inside the spiritual rice grain and the runes on the wok were matched perfectly.

Suppressing his suspicions, and for his own safety, Bai Xiaochun did not immediately ate the rice grain. He put it inside his pouch and spent some more time pondering. In the end, he left his room and joined the Fatty Zhang group in their work.

In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed. In this time, Bai Xiaochun’s progress has came to a grinding halt. His cultivation speed was slow, and when he observed others cooking their spiritual rice grain, he did not see any runes appearing.

Even more curious, he sensed that there was something off about his rice grain, especially because of the turtle shell wok. There was something strange going on. Days later, he went out to buy ingredients with Senior Brother Hei in the outside world. He found out that the Miscellaneous Chores is responsible for going out to designated areas first to find out about the local customs and traditions.

Ever since they returned from outside, Bai Xiaochun’s depress heart has brightened with delight, and he had to try his best to suppress his joy. When he returned to his room, he immediately took out the spiritual grain and observed the rune closely, a strange color shining in his eyes.

“Immortals cultivate in three fundamental paths. The first is Medicinal Refinement, the second is Qi Refinement, and the third is… Spirit Refinement!”

“Spirit Refinement!” After some time, he shouted out in one breathe.

Spirit Refinement is a special method of cultivation. The method forcefully inject the power of heavens and earth into items and objects by overtaking the divine process of creation and stealing the Qi from Heaven and Earth to refine the item. No matter if it was medicinal pills or treasures, they can be spiritually refined. Since such method is going against the heavens, there is only a certain probability of success. Once successful, the refined item’s quality and strength would be drastically increased, but if the process failed, it could immediately turn the most valuable of treasures into waste.

The most terrifying about Spirit Refinement process is that their effects can be stacked. If an object is successfully refined ten times, its effect could change the heavens and shake the earth.

The more valuable an item, the greater the stacking effect.

The only caveat was that the more times an item is refined, the smaller the chance of them being successfully refined. Even the few great experts at Spirit Refining do not easily dare to try to test their luck. No matter what, the price paid when failed is just too great.

“The records once said, this Spirit Creek Sect has a Guardian Treasure that they have obtained due to a fateful encounter, the ten times refined Sky Horn Sword!” Bai Xiaochun could feel his mouth getting dry. He swallowed down his saliva, his eyes showing signs of fear and bewilderment. He glanced at the turtle shell wok with its dozens of dim runes stripes, his heart jumping through his throat.

Right now, he was sure. The reason why the rune has appeared on the spiritual rice grain was all because of this wok!

Hesitating, Bai Xiaochun clenched his teeth, if he does not end up solving this mystery, he will not be able to get any sleep. But he also knew that if this wok was really not ordinary, even more mysterious than he has thought, he must definitely never let another soul know of it.

That’s why he waited for until midnight to approach the turtle shell wok. He breathe in deeply and retrieved the wooden sword from the bag. Just like on that day he has thrown in the spiritual rice grain, he threw the wooden sword inside the wok.

Translator: Er-kun