Xing Yi stared intensely at the sight of what he thought to be a black cauldron underwater for a few moments until he travelled back up to the surface of the water to catch a breath.

Another thing that came with his cleansing of the first meridian was that he could now hold his breath underwater for what he knew to be a long time. Though, he did have a rough sense of time and felt that he could reliably hold his breath underwater for about up to ten minutes at a time.

Swimming underwater, he swam several metres down until he reached the black cauldron. He swam around it, inspecting it. It was large. The size of a bear, being big enough to fit even a full-grown adult inside. Upon its black exterior were unintelligible cryptic engravings of transforming patterns. Xing Yi could not read any meaning from this.

Xing Yi had a quick retrospective of his current situation. Finding a pitch-black cauldron like this at the bottom of the river was not something to be quickly dismissed. Xing Yi had read the stories in passing. Of the unknowing cultivator accidentally awaking a power far beyond them, causing them and everyone else involved to simultaneously lose their lives.

Or maybe he was overthinking? As these ominous thoughts rose forward, his heart had started beating faster, his nerves acting up again. He calmed himself down by circulating his inner qi, something that he should’ve done back at the auction house but he had forgotten to do at the time because he had been so nervous.

Think rationally, he told himself.

He inspected the outside of the cauldron for markers of it being spiritual in nature. It being a cauldron however, meant that ten times out of ten it was a pill cauldron. Fortunately and coincidentally, he had been studying on the hall markers of how to identify a pill cauldron along with other things. Before he could do this, Xing Yi would have to pull it out of the water.

Holding onto one of its handles, Xing Yi kicked off of the ground and pulled it to the surface by kicking through the water with his legs. If it was on the surface, he may have not been able to lift it, but underwater it was far easier to move around. It took him about a minute of pulling and kicking until he managed to pull it to the edge of the riverbank, only one of its handles sticking out of the water.

From there, Xing Yi found whatever footing he could find in the rocks and pulled it up onto land. As a small child, Xing Yi didn’t look to have enough strength to even move an inch. But with his first layer external cultivation, he had the strength of a burly man who performed strenuous labor all day. Even Xing Yi was frightened at his own strength.

Soon, he brought it onto flat land and let out a big exhale of air when he was finished. The inside of it was still filled with water but he didn’t need to worry about that fact as of this moment.

Xing Yi was still completely naked at this point. He dried himself with the towel he brought and put his robes back on.

He didn’t want a stray cultivator that was flying over to sweep their spiritual sense over him, only to accidentally see his naked figure. That would be incredibly embarrassing.

Proceeding to study the cauldron, Xing Yi’s expression quickly blinked his eyes in surprise. What was this thing?

Asking this question, Xing Yi used his towel to covers the cauldron from view before running up the hill. Fifteen-minutes later, Xing Yi returned exhausted and a book in hand.

Over the next few minutes, he flipped through the book while comparing colour hues that were imprinted on the page, paraphrasing certain phrases in the book while touching the cauldron. He continued to run through a few more tests until he came to a conclusion.

Xing Yi had no idea what this thing was. He was in no way an expert but he closely followed the directions listed in the book. It was a simple yes or no checklist that would tell him what type of pill cauldron it was.

But this cauldron? It didn’t fit into any of the categories and was a complete anomaly. It didn’t make sense.

This all went down to what the cauldron was made out of. He had no idea what the metal that made the cauldron was. It was nothing like any of the metals described in the book. And this book went over a very long list. Over two hundred in fact.

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Xing Yi stood with an uneasy heart as he looked at the cauldron. He went over the possibilities. Some time passed and

Xing Yi realised something. If this object just so happened to be a real pill cauldron, then he would be in great luck!

But it was absolutely crazy to think of. Right as he was trying to acquire a cauldron, one shows up? That was not normal.

But Xing Yi wasn’t someone to deny a boon from the heavens.

But first, he had to take some precautions. If this pill cauldron just so happened to be incredibly valuable, he had to make sure no one knew about it or it would result in the loss of his life. In his time in the world of cultivation, he knew how ruthless it really was. He made sure to make great distance from the cultivators that inhabited this world.

The only thing they truly cared about was advancing their cultivation.

Xing Yi’s nerves grew out of control as he imagined the many scenarios but quickly regained his calm by circulating his inner qi. It created a warm feeling over his whole body, comforting him and calming his worries.

Xing Yi’s first job was to haul the cauldron from the bottom of the valley, all the way up a steep hill and to his house. How much did this thing weigh? He tried lifting it and was quickly reminded of how heavy it was from when he was tugging it on land earlier.

Making a start, he used a strategy to almost walk it up the hill. It was far less taxing on his body than directly lifting it up and carrying it or pushing it forward. It wasn’t very soon before Xing Yi could feel his arms burning and his grip starting to fail him.

But Xing Yi was a persistent kid.

He simply couldn’t risk someone seeing this cauldron in broad daylight. It was over the achingly long course of about five hours that Xing Yi finally brought the cauldron up the hill and to his house. Giving himself a rest, he brought the cauldron inside the house, which was a tight squeeze that involved him turning it sideways and rolling it through. It barely fitted.

Snuggly placing it inside a large, hallway closet, Xing Yi finally let out a sigh of relief and closed the door behind himself.

There were only two ways to identify if a cauldron was a pill cauldron other than based on appearance. By first, injecting your spiritual qi into the cauldron and seeing if there was a response. Unfortunately, Xing Yi couldn’t do this as he knew very well by this point. He had inner qi, not spiritual qi.

The second way was to boil a specific spiritual herb, named Brown Calamus, into the very cauldron and after a few minutes, a metallic smell should start to be produced if the cauldron isn’t a pill cauldron. If it is, it won’t produce that smell.

It is a very common herb and wasn’t priced highly. But, if he wanted to buy some he had to pay in full spirit stones, so he might be forced to buy several times the amount he needed to actually test the cauldron. It was a shame but it was a worthwhile trade.

Putting on a pair of leather shoes, he made his way over to the nearest teleportation pagoda which was over an hour away. Regardless, he made the journey and arrived at the isolated pagoda.

One thing he learned about these teleportation pagodas was that they were in fact defence mechanisms. In case of an attack, people had to be able to travel from one end of the sect to the other in quick succession. Although it may only take a short amount of time for cultivators to do so, time was crucial and so they would use these teleportation pagodas to gain extra time.

Giving his name, Xing Yi presented his seal and told the cultivator on duty where he was heading. However, this one, unlike previous guards, was curious and somehow interested in Xing Yi’s affairs.

“You’re heading to Martial Uncle Yang’s Herb Garden? Mortal Xing Yi must be attending to some special matters! Would you mind sharing what you are doing there with this senior? I am quite interested!”